The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal from broadcasters against a lower court decision denying their request to shut down Aereo.
Aereo founder and CEO Chet Kanojia welcomed the decision and said in a statement: “We said from the beginning that it was our hope that this case would be decided on the merits and not through a wasteful war of attrition. We look forward to presenting our case to the Supreme Court and we have every confidence that the Court will validate and preserve a consumer’s right to access local over-the-air television with an individual antenna, make a personal recording with a PVR, and watch that recording on a device of their choice.
““This case is critically important not only to Aereo, but to the entire cloud computing and cloud storage industry. The landmark Second Circuit decision in Cablevision provided much needed clarity for the cloud industry and as a result, helped foster massive investment, growth and innovation in the sector. The challenges outlined in the broadcasters’ filing make clear that they are using Aereo as a proxy to attack Cablevision itself and thus, undermine a critical foundation of the cloud computing and storage industry.”
The broadcasters, which include CBS, Fox, ABC and NBC, say the Aereo service violates their copyright as Aereo does not pay any carriage fees.
