Ira Teinowitz
Solicitor General Asks to Argue Aereo Case at Supreme Court
The Justice Department is taking an extra step to bolster its support of TV networks in their Supreme Court case argument that Aereo is illegally retransmitting local TV station signals.
US Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, who previously filed a friend of the court brief siding with broadcasters, is now asking to be allowed to argue his view endorsing TV networks stance during high court oral arguments in the case April 22.
The court has yet to make a decision about the request. Cory Andrews, an attorney for the Washington Legal Foundation, which has filed its own friend of the court brief in the case, told TheWrap the move was not that unusual. He said in about 50 percent of cases where the government files friend of the court briefs, it gets time to argue its view. Sometimes the government asks for the time. Other times the court asks the government to act.
‘Dot-Sucks’ Internet Domain Idea Just Plain Sucks, Sen Rockefeller Say
An Internet domain ending in “.sucks”? That idea blows, says Sen Jay Rockefeller (D-WV). Requests for the “dot-sucks” domain appear to be little more than “a predatory shakedown” -- an attempt to extract money from companies worried their brands would be tarnished, the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee wrote in letter to Stephen D. Crocker, chairman of the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
“I believe any potential this might have to increase choice or competition is overwhelmed by the ways it will be used to unfairly defame individuals, non-profit organizations and businesses,” Sen Rockefeller wrote. ”It is clear that the companies competing to operate this view it primarily as an opportunity to generate income through ‘defensive registrations.’ In my opinion, it is not in the public interest.”
The request to ICANN for the new top level domains were made in 2012 by three competitors: Donuts, Momentous and Top Level Spectrum. An ICANN spokesman said all three requests are still being reviewed. If ICANN approves the requests it will either pick one of the three companies or an auction will take place on which gets the rights to the .sucks suffix.