On April 5, 2021, the Supreme Court handed down its opinion in Google LLC v Oracle America, Inc. Almost all of the reporting on this is terrible because the journalists covering it lack understanding of copyright and of programming. I understand both, so let me explain what’s going on here.
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As I sit here at nearly 1am, I fear I may be getting my second cold, 7 days from the previous one. I blame tourists.
Clarence Thomas once wrote something very true about regulation, and the ever-growing power of unaccountable regulators: “We seem to be straying further and further from the Constitution without so much as pausing to ask why.”
FCC, in what it’s been up to under Obama, shows he’s right.
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So the Aereo case went to the Supreme Court, and it’s official: Aereo lost, and may be killed as the result of government. Naturally I agree with the three justice minority of Antonin Scalia, Sam Alito, and Clarence Thomas. Clarence Thomas is the kind of guy that, if he rules against what I thought was right, I’ll doublecheck to see if I was wrong. And he voted with Scalia.
Turns out there’s some real gold in the dissent, too. Justice Scalia could write Tech at Night.
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And we truly are back. Friday night was a night off thanks to some maintenance at RedState. It was nice because I could rest on a Friday night… but it’s not so nice now when I have a whopping 20 Firefox windows to sort through tonight. So here we go.
With so many big stories going on, it’s hard to pick which one to start with. So I’ll start with the one that may be under the radar more than the others. The FCC refused to declare the wireless market competitive in its annual report required by the [Correction: OMNIBUS BUDGET RECONCILIATION ACT OF 1993]. This is a ridiculous position to take. Despite obvious, quantifiable proof that prices are lower, service is better, and choices abound, the FCC has refused to admit the market is competitive for ideological reasons. After all, if the FCC finds the market competitive, it can’t give itself permission to regulate further. Just more proof we need FCC reform, joining the long list of existing reasons.
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