December 19, 2003
Verizon Wins
Verizon is victorious. Some quick thoughts here, and more above:
The first important thing to note is that the judgment was reached on statutory, not constitutional, grounds. The latter were not discussed by the court, so they’re still live issues if the judgment were reversed en banc or by the Supreme Court.
Next, let’s remember (roughly) the timeline of this case. The District Court made its judgment before the RIAA had started subpeonaing people, and the court seemed very unconcerned with the potential for abuse. The appeals court rejected the stay before the RIAA had really gotten going. But at oral arguments, when the RIAA had started, the court seemed concerned.
That concern doesn’t translate into this judgment. If anything, the potential for abusing the statute would probably be more present in their minds when considering the constitutional issues. However, though Judge Ginsburg (the former Reagan nominee to the SC, right?) says that this judgment is all based on the reading of the statute, I get the feeling that there might be something else going on here.
Maybe I’m getting that feeling just because I’m always suspicious of opinions that say that the text is unambiguous and, if you just follow the text strictly, the answer is obvious. Interpretations are rarely that easy. I agree with the court’s reading of the statute, but I’m not sure it’s as unambiguous as Ginsburg makes it out to be. I’m going to have to go back and read the briefs and the district court’s opinion for comparison.
I’m not saying that this opinion is based on politics – it isn’t. But politics might have helped point in the right direction.
Finally, what happens next? We should expect an appeal, but, in the meantime, that won’t do the RIAA much good. This gives another push to Congress to step in. If they open up 512 to debate, it will be on far different terms than when the statute was first passed. I bet, if they open that up, it’ll be in the context of a broader rethinking of what they’re going to do to fix copyright’s current problems. Those broader problems won’t necessarily be dealt with, but they’ll probably be considered and discussed, perhaps in a more serious way than the P2P hearings that have been happening over the last several months.
Filed by Derek Slater at 12:22 pm under Big Ideas
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