The Supreme Court issued a ruling on the Omega vs. Costco case that I have covered a couple of times.

As Doug Pardee noted, Omega essentially won. With Justice Kagan recusing herself (she had written a pro-Omega brief prior to being appointed a justice), the Supreme Court deadlocked 4-4, issuing a one-page per curiam decision that did not even say which justice voted on which side, let alone provide any reasoning.

On the bright side, this means that even though Omega won in this particular case, the decision is only binding within the 9th circuit and does not set a nationwide precedent. So it is bad, but not as bad as it could have been if Kagan hadn’t had to recuse herself.

“It’s as if the court never took the case in the first place. We have to wait for another case like this to come along,” said Thomas Goldstein, the SCOTUSblog founder who has argued nearly two dozen cases before the high court.

A friend of mine who watches Supreme Court decisions had pointed out in earlier discussions that this was a really complicated issue, and suggested that this decision was the court’s way of sending a message to go fix this mess legislatively—they didn’t want to touch it with a ten-foot pole.

I don’t think that the net effect of this is going to be that it suddenly becomes illegal to import the UK editions of Harry Potter books, or buy DVDs from other regions that are cheaper or have better features. And it leaves the door open to SCOTUS hearing arguments in the next case of this nature that appears—unlike Lawrence Lessig’s disastrous turn in Eldred vs. Ashcroft that sealed the door on copyright extension matters for the foreseeable future.

You win some and you lose some, but this case turned out to be more of a draw.

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