Sometimes, sometimes not. One example of judges not taking a law literally is the Aereo case. Aereo was a company that aimed to provide over-the-air TV as an o

Sometimes, sometimes not. One example of judges not taking a law literally is the Aereo case. Aereo was a company that aimed to provide over-the-air TV as an on-demand internet service. They tried to get around paying retransmission fees by hosting small personal antennas that would transmit to small personal receivers for each customer. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that since they were basically performing the same services as a cable company, the retransmission fees applied, regardless of the pointless technical setup with individual antennas and receivers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Broadcasting_Cos.,_Inc._v._Aereo,_Inc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Broadcasting_Cos.,_In....