Supreme Court Takes the Air Out of Aereo
On June 25, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a highly anticipated opinion in the Aereo Inc. case, which has been pending in multiple courts since 2012. In a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court concluded Aereo's TV streaming service is a "public performance" under the Copyright Act. The Court's ruling reversed a Second Circuit ruling in favor of Aereo. Aereo provides subscribers with access to local television programming over the internet. The company relies on tiny antennas in its subscribers' local area to receive over-the-air television programming. Each antenna's signal is separately recorded in a cloud DVR. Customers can watch live TV on an antenna allocated specifically to them or schedule recordings online and watch them later. Aereo has argued in the past that its service simply takes the functionality of a home-based DVR and antenna and moves it to the cloud.
The Court's opinion largely adopted the arguments of Aereo's adversary – network broadcasters. The networks sued Aereo soon after it launched, arguing the service infringed their copyrights because the retransmission of their content constituted a public performance. In its opinion, the Supreme Court compared Aereo to cable companies, concluding the Transmit Clause of the Copyright Act prohibited Aereo's rebroadcasting of over-the-air content without authorization.
In a statement on Aereo's website, Aereo's CEO and Founder, Chet Kanojia stated the Court's decision "is a massive setback for the American Consumer" that sends a "chilling message to the technology industry."
But is Aereo out of business? Maybe not. Aereo could negotiate a license agreement with the networks and forego its complicated system of deploying thousands of antennas in each market in which it offers its services.
For more information on this topic, please visit our Copyrights service page.
Klemchuk LLP is an Intellectual Property (IP), Technology, Internet, and Business law firm located in Dallas, TX. The firm offers comprehensive legal services including litigation and enforcement of all forms of IP as well as registration and licensing of patents, trademarks, trade dress, and copyrights. The firm also provides a wide range of technology, Internet, e-commerce, and business services including business planning, formation, and financing, mergers and acquisitions, business litigation, data privacy, and domain name dispute resolution. Additional information about the IP law firm and its IP law attorneys may be found at www.klemchuk.com.
Klemchuk LLP hosts Culture Counts, a blog devoted to the discussion of law firm culture and corporate core values with frequent topics about positive work environment, conscious capitalism, entrepreneurial management, positive workplace culture, workplace productivity, and corporate core values.