Early Test for Obama on IP Issues, Comin' Right Up

Obama loved him some Silicon Valley during his presidential campaign, when the donations were flowing. The question is: Will it be reciprocated when it comes time to pick sides in the copyright war between Silicon Valley’s tech companies and the Hollywood movie studios?

The Supreme Court made sure today that the question will have to be answered sooner than later. The high court told the solicitor general to weigh in on a copyright fight between Cablevision and a bunch of studios. The studios claim that the cable company is infringing its copyrights by storing TV shows on its servers and allowing customers to watch them when they like. More details at Scotus Blog.

“This will be the first test for the Obama administration on which side it chooses to support in the ongoing copyright debate between content providers/copyright owners, on the one hand, and technology companies, on the other hand,” observes Michael Barclay, the Wilson Sonsini IP litigator who alerted us to the news.

So which way will Obama go? We know he loves his BlackBerry and used the Internet better than any other presidential candidate. But he’s also got big supporters in Hollywood, which has always done a lot better job lobbying than our local tech companies.

— Zusha Elinson