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The Department of Justice is all but predicting the loss of local TV service for millions of satellite subscribers if the Supreme Court rules that a local-TV-carriage law is unconstitutional.
Under a 1999 law under attack by EchoStar Communications Corp., direct-broadcast satellite carriers are required to carry every station in markets where they carry any. Congress imposed this requirement if DBS firms wanted to distribute local TV stations without the permission of copyright holders.
In a Supreme Court brief filed May 13, solicitor general Theodore Olson argued that if the 'carry-one, carry-all' regime violated the First Amendment, the court would also be forced to invalidate the copyright license.
'[EchoStar and DirecTV Inc.] would thereby have lost the right to invoke any statutory license to carry broadcast programming without the copyright owners' authorization,' Olson said.
Without saying so directly, Olson painted a scenario under which the Supreme Court could hand the DBS industry a First Amendment victory but a copyright-law defeat that together would bar DBS carriers from providing local TV signals in any practical manner.
Full Story
Under a 1999 law under attack by EchoStar Communications Corp., direct-broadcast satellite carriers are required to carry every station in markets where they carry any. Congress imposed this requirement if DBS firms wanted to distribute local TV stations without the permission of copyright holders.
In a Supreme Court brief filed May 13, solicitor general Theodore Olson argued that if the 'carry-one, carry-all' regime violated the First Amendment, the court would also be forced to invalidate the copyright license.
'[EchoStar and DirecTV Inc.] would thereby have lost the right to invoke any statutory license to carry broadcast programming without the copyright owners' authorization,' Olson said.
Without saying so directly, Olson painted a scenario under which the Supreme Court could hand the DBS industry a First Amendment victory but a copyright-law defeat that together would bar DBS carriers from providing local TV signals in any practical manner.
Full Story