On June 30, the News/Media Alliance filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in Salazar v. Paramount Global, concerning the definition of “consumer” under the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA).
The amicus brief, in support of Paramount Global, supports the statutory interpretation adopted by the Sixth Circuit and the D.C. Circuit, holding that a “consumer” under the VPPA is someone who rents, purchases, or subscribes to audiovisual materials from a person in that business. The brief notes that this narrower reading is consistent with the statutory text, in contrast to a broader reading that would apply the VPPA to videos available without subscription, if viewed by consumers of unrelated materials. The brief describes the economic challenges faced by news publishers, and the importance of video to their business models, and explains that a broad application that would impose VPPA liability to common web publishing practices would inflict severe and unintended harm on the news media and the public it serves. The brief calls for the Court to affirm the judgment below.
