The Supreme Court on Wednesday grappled with how far a law Congress passed to cover video rentals in the 1980s should stretch to cover the modern advertising-supported internet.
The case turns on the justices’ interpretation of the Video Privacy Protection Act, first passed in 1988 and last amended in 2013, and the protection it is meant to provide for consumers’ information when they rent or purchase videos. The law protects “consumers” of video content from having private information about their viewing habits from being disclosed without their permission.
