Aereo to Broadcasters: 'We’ll See You in (Supreme) Court'

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By Jason Abbruzzese2013-12-12 23:52:28 UTC

Aereo wants to solve its legal issues with a winner-take-all meeting with broadcasters at the highest court in the land. To the winner go the digital spoils.

The streaming television company said today that it has decided not to oppose a recent petition brought by CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox to the Supreme Court that requests Aereo be shut down for violating copyright law.

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Aereo streams local TV broadcasts to subscribers online and provides a cloud-based DVR service to record programs for later viewing. The company has been the subject of aggressive legal action by broadcasters and professional sports leagues, namely the National Football League and Major League Baseball.

Aereo has won numerous court cases including an important 2-1 vote at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. A ruling from the Supreme Court would set a major precedent for copyright law, however it is up to the court to decide whether the case is worth hearing. Only about 1% of cases that petition the Supreme Court are actually heard.

“While the law is clear and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and two different federal courts have ruled in favor of Aereo, broadcasters appear determined to keep litigating the same issues against Aereo in every jurisdiction that we enter,” Aereo CEO Chet Kanjoia wrote in a statement. “We want this resolved on the merits rather than through a wasteful war of attrition.”

The broadcasters may have a problem with Aereo, but cable companies continue to line up in its defense. Cablevision released a white paper backing Aereo and claiming that broadcasters would hamper development of new technologies if successful in their court case.

““The broadcasters’ overreaching copyright arguments would, if accepted, cause grave harm to consumers, cloud-based technology and future innovation, Cablevision wrote in a statement. “ In a case about Aereo, the broadcasters go well beyond Aereo and attack the legal underpinning of all cloud-based services, everything from the Apple iCloud to Cablevision's own remote storage DVR service”

Image: Getty/Bruce Bennett

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