The problem is permission. Copyrighted content can be publicly distributed only with permission of the holder. The local TV affiliates have copyright on their content and permission to broadcast other content like movies through licensing. This licensing applies to everyone from Hulu to Netflix. Aereo did not obtain any license. It does not matter if they increase the range or the number of viewers of the station. They didn't have permission to do so.
The question that SCOTUS had to determine is whether Aereo was privately or publicly broadcasting. Private recording is okay (Betamax). Private streaming is okay (Sling). SCOTUS has determined that Aereo was publicly broadcasting. I haven't read the full decision yet but that's what they decided.
You keep twisting the documentation by ignoring words that don't agree with your position. You also leave out certain words which changes the context.
You can continue to attempt to obfuscate the issue but the facts remain: Lois Lerner and a bunch of other people associated with this issue failed to preserve official records as required by IRS policy and federal law. The IRS failed to preserve records even though they certified their systems would preserve those records.
At worst, the IRS has a crappy retention system. Having worked in government and companies with small IT budgets, they are not the only ones. You keep making it out to be a bigger thing than this.
Stop trying to project your corporate IT mentality onto systems managed by federal agencies. Watergate and 18 missing minutes helped shape the requirements found in the federal records act for good reason.
Contrary to your paranoia, not everything is attributed to malice. Incompetence is more likely.
These emails were official records. Being official records they had to be maintained in an official recordkeeping system. The IRS email system is not an electronic recordkeeping system, by definition. Lois Lerner's hard drive was not an electronic recordkeeping system, by definition. The IRS official recordkeeping system for email is, by evidence of the letter I've already cited, hard copy print outs of the email.
According to you, everything is an official record because it is missing. That's hardly logical.
Are you purposefully not understanding words that don't support your position
as evidence of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or other activities
Note it does not include or say ALL communications.
Any email that went to the White House concerning the business of the IRS is, by definition, an official record requiring preservation.
No, the GOP want ALL emails in a desperate fish attempt for some sort of smoking gun that the White House directed the actions. It does not appear this to be the case.
Any email that constituted a decision making process, procedures or operations is, by definition, an official record requiring preservation.
Again, the GOP wants ALL emails.
Perhaps you would care to actually identify a class of emails that pertain to auditing, evaluation of applications for tax-exempt status, procedures to follow when processing such applications or emails that discuss IRS business between the White House and the IRS that would not be official records. Until you can accurately define such a class of emails then it is safe to say that the emails were official records requiring preservation.
Do you actually work in an office? I would think many of my emails do not pertain to official business. Also they don't apply to procedures. They don't apply to operations.
As I showed you in the letter from the Department of the Treasury, Lois Lerner was required to physically print those emails and store them. The IRS's failure to properly preserve those records was a violation of law. Lois Lerner's failure to preserve those records was, at least, a violation of IRS policy.
No you deliberately twisted the words of the letter specifically omitting clauses that say the opposite of what you said.
No, agencies cannot do that. All federal agencies are bound by FOIA and transparency requirements. Even if it was voluntary, Obama promised transparency and record keeping during his campaing.
Emails are NOT FOIA requests. There are special forms to request the information. Any emails that pertain to FOIA requests must be kept but normal emails are not. So again, it's Obama's fault that he has not changed every single agency in the government especially those with antiquated IT systems and procedures. Give me a break.
Of course, he has everything to do with it: managing these agencies is his primary job. That's what the president does. That's why these agencies are headed by political appointees. I held Bush responsible for the screwups of his appointees as well.
Um, no. Leading the country is his primary job. Managing individual agencies are the responsibilities of the individual directors. Is Obama ultimately in charge, yes. Does he manage operational aspects? Hell no. Furthermore, Lerner was not an appointee. She was a career government employee. And she rose to her position under Bush not Obama.
Saying that Obama is a lousy president and a liar isn't partisan, because I said the same thing about Bush. I haven't decided yet which of the two presidents has been more incompetent; it's a close call.
THIS particular issue may not have had anything to do with Obama. It was the actions of government employees that he did not appoint. Bush appointed individuals like Gonzales that definitely played partisan politics.
When a user needs to create space in his or her email box, the user has the option of either deleting emails (that do not qualify as official records) or moving them . . . if an email qualifies as an official record, per IRS policy, the email must be printed and placed in the appropriate folder . .
What the GOP wants is ALL emails regardless if they were official records or not specifically if she had any contact with the White House. Again they are not asking for official records as most emails do not qualify as such.
IRS offices will not store the official recordkeeping copy of e-mail messages that are federal records ONLY on the electronic mail system, unless the system has all of the features of an electronic recordkeeping system, some of which are specified in paragraph 2 above. If the electronic mail system is not designed to be a recordkeeping system, ask an E-Mail/System Administrator to instruct you on how to copy the information from the electronic mail system to a recordkeeping system or produce a hard copy[emphasis mine] for recordkeeping purposes.
4. IRS offices that maintain their e-mail records electronically will move or copy them to a separate electronic recordkeeping system unless their system has the features specified in IRM 1.15.6.6.2above. Backup tapes are not to be used for recordkeeping purposes.[emphasis mine]
The basic requirements applicable to all records apply to e-mail records as well. If they are not in an approved electronic recordkeeping system, then the e-mail messages identified as records must be printed out and placed in the appropriate record system[emphasis mine]. However, there are some specific elements for records sent or received through e-mail which also must be captured in addition to the message to satisfy recordkeeping requirements. You should ensure that...
New York... when civilization falls apart, remember, we were way ahead of you. - David Letterman