Washington – The Computer & Communications Industry Association and the Software & Information Industry Association have filed a joint amicus brief in Salazar v. Paramount Global. The filing pointed out that the Video Privacy Protection Act, an analog-era law which was intended to keep peoples’ history of video cassette rentals private, was never intended to become a sweeping internet law that should be applied to all digital services that have ads or multimedia content.
The tech associations’ amicus brief noted that incidental video clips provided online, sometimes as ads before a viewer’s requested content, have little in common with the rental of video cassette tapes. The brief argues that if the VPPA were applied to online video clips it would discourage typical advertising practices and distort the design of members’ websites and services under threat of lawsuits.
The following can be attributed to CCIA President & CEO Matt Schruers:
“In 1988, Congress did not intend to regulate consumers’ interaction with digital audiovisual content in completely new technological contexts. The appeals court was correct in denying the plaintiff’s attempt to transform this law, intended to narrowly provide privacy around video cassette rentals, into a new ticket for sweeping nationwide internet class actions.”
