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Home – Supreme Court News – In One Type of ‘Blockbuster’ Case, Supreme Court Weighs 1980s Video Privacy Law in Digital Age

In One Type of ‘Blockbuster’ Case, Supreme Court Weighs 1980s Video Privacy Law in Digital Age

The Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday on how a video rentals privacy law from the 1980s applies to the digital age.

Justices on both sides expressed skepticism about how the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act, enacted in the days of VHS rentals at stores such as Blockbuster Video, applies today. The federal law, at the center of the case of Salazar v. Paramount Global, prohibits the disclosure of customers’ rentals and personally identifiable information but specifically refers to “tapes.”

Justice Samuel Alito noted that Congress “enacted a law that is based on the technology of the 1980s, and you can see this in every provision of this, in the title, ‘wrongful disclosure of videotape rental, for sale, or sale records.’”

“I’m just wondering whether we have sort of limitations in the facts that we need to think about a little bit in trying to assess what Congress’ intent was here,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said.

The dispute goes back to 2022, when plaintiff Michael Salazar subscribed to an email newsletter distributed by 247Sports.com, a subsidiary of Paramount, that included videos.

Without Salazar’s consent, Paramount disclosed his Facebook ID and video-watching history to Facebook, according to the question presented to the Supreme Court.

Victor........

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