Aereo Ruled Illegal by Supreme Court
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Aereo was ruled illegal on Wednesday by the Supreme Court, which held that the company’s technology letting subscribers stream and record broadcast TV using without the broadcaster’s permission infringes on the networks’ copyright.
Justices ruled 6 to 3 that Aereo is equivalent to a cable company, not merely an equipment provider. It wasn’t clear how the justices’ usual ideology would play out in a case about technological innovation and copyright, but in the end it was three of the court’s most conservative members who voted in favor of Aereo: Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. Stephen Breyer, John Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan ruled against the company.
It’s a resounding victory for broadcasters such as CBS, NBC, Fox, ABC and allies such as the NFL, which argued that Aereo steals networks’ signals and would have forced broadcasters and major sports out of over-the-air transmissions to protect their intellectual property.
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