AfterDawn: Tech news

Aereo case may land in Supreme Court

Written by James Delahunty @ 10 Oct 2013 5:53 User comments (2)

Aereo case may land in Supreme Court

According to an exclusive report by Variety, U.S. broadcasters are preparing to petition the U.S. Supreme Court to examines their legal dispute with Aereo.
Aereo is a premium service that allows subscribers to view (and record) broadcast TV content. It literally assigns subscribers to miniature antennas that pick up the publicly accessible signals and broadcast them to play on a variety of devices. The company believes that this setup complies with laws and regulations in the United States.

Broadcasters on the other hand disagree, and have sued Aereo to stop the service form proliferating any further. So far, they have been unsuccessful in their efforts, with district courts backing Aereo and the refusal by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider the case.

While the broadcasters have had no joy stepping on Aereo, they have had success in similar cases against Film On X in L.A. and Washington district courts. Film On X also uses antennas and provides digital streams to users.



Broadcasters consider the rulings in favor of Aero and against Film On X as evidence that circuit courts are issuing conflicting opinions, which is grounds for the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and examine the issues.

The broadcasters must file a writ of certoriari by October 15.

(via: Variety)

Tags: Aereo
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2 user comments

110.10.2013 13:50

I hope Aereo wins. I have it and would hate to lose it. Then i'd have to go back to cable !!

210.10.2013 19:27

I hope they win too...if for no other reason than the fact that big cities like NYC get so many high quality HD broadcast channels while smaller cities are lucky to get 3 low-power channels that require a 6-foot antenna. The cable company here is a monopoly and they charge $50 a month for absolute basic cable which is 30 SD channels that are all HD back in Tampa (where I lived last) and 10 HD channels (6 of which are HD versions of the SD channels). If these broadcasters are making money because of people tuning into these channels, and they are getting more viewers without having to buy/operate extra towers, WTF are they complaining about? I know they get rebroadcasing fees from cable companies...but they really don't get that much. They could easily do this themselves and make more money than they get from rebroadcasting fees...and Aereo wouldn't even be a concern because the "name brand" version for the same price will always win.

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