United States v. Playboy Entertainment Group, Inc., 529 U.S. 803, 42 (2000)

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844

UNITED STATES v. PLAYBOY ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, INC.

Breyer, J., dissenting

call responses, faulty installations, blocking failures, and other mishaps, leaving those steps as significant § 504 obstacles. See, e. g., Deposition of J. Cavalier in Civ. Action No. 96-94, pp. 17-18 (D. Del., Dec. 5, 1997) ("It's like calling any utilities; you sit there, and you wait and wait on the phone . . . . [It took] [t]hree weeks, numerous phone calls. . . . [E]very time I call Cox Cable . . . I get different stories"); Telephonic Deposition of M. Bennett, id., at 10-11 (D. Del., Dec. 9, 1997) ("After two [failed installations,] no, I don't recall calling them again. I just said well, I guess this is something I'm going to have to live with").

Further, the District Court's actual plan for "better notice"—the only plan that makes concrete the majority's "better notice" requirement—is fraught with difficulties. The District Court ordered Playboy to insist that cable operators place notice of § 504 in "inserts in monthly billing statements, barker channels . . . and on-air advertising." 30 F. Supp. 2d, at 719. But how can one say that placing one more insert in a monthly billing statement stuffed with others, or calling additional attention to adult channels through a "notice" on "barker" channels, will make more than a small difference? More importantly, why would doing so not interfere to some extent with the cable operators' own freedom to decide what to broadcast? And how is the District Court to supervise the contracts with thousands of cable operators that are to embody this requirement?

Even if better notice did adequately inform viewers of their § 504 rights, exercise of those rights by more than 6% of the subscriber base would itself raise Playboy's costs to the point that Playboy would be forced off the air entirely, 30 F. Supp. 2d, at 713—a consequence that would not seem to further anyone's interest in free speech. The majority, resting on its own earlier conclusion that signal bleed is not widespread, denies any likelihood that more than 6% of viewers would need § 504. But that earlier conclusion is unsound. See supra, at 839-840. The majority also relies on

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