Technology cases coming before the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court is opening its new session. On the docket: several cases that touch on technology. We talk with legal scholar Jeffrey Rosen about cases involving video games, privacy, and whether AT&T counts as a person in our conversation. Also in this show, the Senate wants commercials to be quieter. What might that sound like?
The Supreme Court opens its new session today. On the docket: several cases that touch on technology.
Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association, the tech case that has garnered the most attention, has to do with video games and whether the government (in this case, the state of California) has the right to restrict sales of games to people under the age of 18. There are also notable cases involving privacy as it relates to background checks and whether material given over by a corporation is subject to Freedom Of Information Act requests.
We talk with Jeffrey Rosen, a professor at the George Washington University Law School and writer for the New Republic, about these cases.
We also talk with Rosen about the makeup of the court itself when it comes to technology. With technology changing so quickly, are the justices up on what everything actually means and how far reaching their opinions may be? Heck, do they even use e-mail?
Also in this show, now that the U.S. Senate has passed a bill declaring that TV commercials need to be no louder than TV shows, we imagine a novel way to mellow out a monster truck ad.