Appeals Court Sides with Aereo

NEW YORK: The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of Aereo, denying a ban on the TV streaming service that a group of 17 broadcasters had been seeking.

The group, which includes ABC, NBCUniversal and many others, had been trying to shut down the service until litigation between the companies is settled. The issue is that Aereo does not have to pay licensing fees to the broadcasters, though linear platform operators contribute billions in retransmission consent fees. Aereo allows subscribers to stream live broadcasts of TV channels on devices via miniature antennas, each one assigned to a different subscriber.

The court said: "We conclude that Aereo’s transmissions of unique copies of broadcast television programs created at its users’ requests and transmitted while the programs are still airing on broadcast television are not ‘public performances’ of the Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works under Cablevision. As such, Plaintiffs have not demonstrated that they are likely to prevail on the merits on this claim in their copyright infringement action. Nor have they demonstrated serious questions as to the merits and a balance of hardships that tips decidedly in their favor. We therefore affirm the order of the district court denying the Plaintiffs’ motion.”

Chet Kanojia, Aereo’s CEO, commented: “We may be a small start-up, but we’ve always believed in standing up and fighting for our consumers. We are grateful for the court’s thoughtful analysis and decision and we look forward to continuing to build a successful business that puts consumers first.”