Oral argument in broadcasters’ latest attempt to get...
Oral argument in broadcasters’ latest attempt to get a nationwide preliminary injunction against streaming TV service Aereo is Oct. 15, said an order issued in U.S District Court in Manhattan Tuesday. The broadcaster request for a preliminary injunction while the…
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case against Aereo is tried on the merits is the same one that led to the ABC v. Aereo U.S. Supreme Court decision in broadcasters’ favor in June (CD June 26 p1). Aereo has argued that the ABC v. Aereo majority opinion classified it as identical to a cable system, entitling it to a compulsory copyright license (CD July 11 p10). “Aereo has paid the statutory license fees required under [Copyright Act] Section 111, and thus Plaintiffs can no longer complain that they are not being compensated as copyright owners,” said Aereo Friday in an opposition filing to the injunction motion. “Aereo is entitled to a compulsory license under the Copyright Act, and no preliminary injunction should issue on remand.” Aereo pointed to statements from CBS CEO Les Moonves that Aereo hadn’t affected CBS retransmission consent negotiations as evidence that the requested injunction wouldn’t be preventing any harm to broadcast businesses. The injunction request is also “overbroad” in targeting both Aereo’s offerings of real-time and time-shifted viewings of retransmitted broadcast content, Aereo said. Since the Supreme Court’s Aereo ruling didn’t overturn the Cablevision decision that provides the legal underpinning for Cablevision’s remote DVR technology, the injunction shouldn’t include Aereo’s time-shifted offerings, Aereo said. “Cablevision remains the law in this Circuit and Aereo’s time-shifted DVR is functionally identical to the Cablevision system."