DOJ backs TV networks in Supreme Court, says Aereo is "clearly infringing" copyrights

[Himanshu Arora]

The US department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday came out in support of TV networks in their upcoming Supreme Court battle against Internet TV startup Aereo. In a brief filed with Court on March 3rd, the DOJ said that Aereo is “clearly infringing” on the copyrights of TV broadcasters by picking up their free, over-the-air TV signals, and retransmitting them to consumers via the Internet.

Aereo “transmits copyrighted broadcast programs to the public, without the authorization of the copyright holders, and is therefore liable for infringement,” the DOJ said in its brief.

At its core, the question is whether Aereo streams the content over the Internet, or does it only provide customers access to equipment needed to stream the content. While Aereo says its service is a private performance, as each user is assigned to a tiny remote antenna, TV networks argue otherwise.

Although the DOJ agrees that Aereo uses individual antennas to receive the signal, it's the use of centralized servers and other equipment that doesn't make it an individualized end-to-end system. While the DOJ's brief is just a piece of advice, which the court is free to ignore, its show of support for TV networks is definitely a major setback for Aereo in its Supreme Court battle.

The company, which just announced its Austin launch, said that if it "is not allowed to continue, neither are network DVRs, which would be a huge step backwards for a lot of these industries”. On the other hand, broadcasters like CBS and Fox have threatened to cease broadcast, should the Supreme Court decide in Aereo's favor.

After federal courts in New York and Boston last year sided with Aereo, an Utah federal court last month sided with broadcasters, and imposed a preliminary injunction on the company’s operations.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/55890-doj-backs-tv-networks-supreme-court-aereo-clearly-infringing-copyrights.html

 

[wastedkill]

How can you infringe upon something that a simple antenna can pick up... its like broadcasting a youtube video on TV and someone suing you because you broadcasted something that can be freely and easily viewed by using the internet.

It really is pathetic that some people dont have the intelligence to understand that if anyone can pop up a antenna and get access to those channels that your clearly not infringing on copyrights.... Or am I missing something obvious????

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

How can you infringe upon something that a simple antenna can pick up... its like broadcasting a youtube video on TV and someone suing you because you broadcasted something that can be freely and easily viewed by using the internet.

It really is pathetic that some people dont have the intelligence to understand that if anyone can pop up a antenna and get access to those channels that your clearly not infringing on copyrights.... Or am I missing something obvious????

Um, yes, you are. Taking something that doesn't belong to you and putting it on the internet is copyright infringement. Simple as that. Aereo doesn't own the shows they're putting on their service so they shouldn't be allowed to do it. Same reason you won't find a recording of the Super Bowl on You Tube. Google doesn't own the broadcast of the football game even though it was broadcast free over the air. Just because someone shows you something, doesn't mean it belongs to you to do with it what you like.

 

[Guest]

But...But...I though that the Democrats didnt like big business and were all for the 1%.

 

[wastedkill]

Um, yes, you are. Taking something that doesn't belong to you and putting it on the internet is copyright infringement. Simple as that. Aereo doesn't own the shows they're putting on their service so they shouldn't be allowed to do it. Same reason you won't find a recording of the Super Bowl on You Tube. Google doesn't own the broadcast of the football game even though it was broadcast free over the air. Just because someone shows you something, doesn't mean it belongs to you to do with it what you like.

Aereo isnt Taking anything at all, all they are doing is increasing the TV broadcasters profits by broadcasting it on the internet which not only benefits the people that are suing Aereo but it also increase the amount of users that watch it.

You just told me that if a recording of superbowl on youtube is there then its allowed which is why I found a recording of the superbowl on youtube, If someone shows me their car it isn't mine yes you are correct but just because I watched the ABC on antenna doesnt make it mine unless your trying to tell me if I see something via the broadcasters choice of showing then I own it.

IF I had content and I wanted to make money wouldnt it make sense to increase my audiance? or is the fact that greedy TV broadcasters hate making money?

 

[Enthusiast]

How can you infringe upon something that a simple antenna can pick up... its like broadcasting a youtube video on TV and someone suing you because you broadcasted something that can be freely and easily viewed by using the internet.

It really is pathetic that some people dont have the intelligence to understand that if anyone can pop up a antenna and get access to those channels that your clearly not infringing on copyrights.... Or am I missing something obvious????

Rights are not all or nothing; you might have the right to display something for personal use, but not promotional use. You may have the right to make a movie using an author's characters from his book, but not write your own book with those characters. You may also have the right to record, for your OWN USE a show; but you might not have the right to RE-BROADCAST that show, and charge others for the privelege!

Let me ask you this, as its the closest analogy I can think of: you know that you're free to turn on your TV and watch your favorite cartoon, but you also know its illegal to make a tape of all of that season's episodes, and sell them online, right?

 

[Guest]

Um, yes, you are. Taking something that doesn't belong to you and putting it on the internet is copyright infringement. Simple as that. Aereo doesn't own the shows they're putting on their service so they shouldn't be allowed to do it. Same reason you won't find a recording of the Super Bowl on You Tube. Google doesn't own the broadcast of the football game even though it was broadcast free over the air. Just because someone shows you something, doesn't mean it belongs to you to do with it what you like.

The customers rent hardware, so Aereo doesn't exactly provide the shows. They are just merely provide hardwares to the customers to allow them record the shows in internet for them to watch it.

 

[Enthusiast]

I sympathize with the content providers here; they own the content, and no one else should be profiting from the content without their consent.

If you wrote a book, and it was a bestseller, but donated 1 copy to every public library, wouldn't you be pissed if someone jerk photocopied one copy from the library and sold it online, just because you hadn't yet published an online version of the book?

 

[Gamesinner]

Is this not what Direct TV does? Right now I am getting my local channels through Direct TV. I bet you Direct TV pays quite a bit to offer the local channels to subscribers though. You have to ask yourself why the major broadcast networks would find this a threat? The only logical answer is they are afraid of loss of viewership/revenue. Remember although the are thousands of affiliates throughout the United States each station has a monopoly in each market. I live in southwest Florida and we only have one FOX, CBS, NBC, exc. It would be damaging to the local markets if I could stream FOX from Tampa or Miami. Also when the Bucs play they have local blackouts of the games in Tampa on TV. Well if people in Tampa could just stream the game from Miami then they may not sell as many seats at the Raymond James Stadium. So you see, it's about control.

 

[psycros]

This is no different than a DVR: its MY signal coming from MY television, being time-shifted for later viewing. In Aero's case its being *place*-shifted, but its still being shown only to a SINGLE SCREEN. This decision is pure BS bought and paid for by outmoded middlemen.

 

[Guest17]

It's one thing to sell a TV antenna outright, as an antenna company like Winegard does. It's quite another to charge a monthly fee for an antenna that capture OTA signals. Aereo is, in effect, no different than either a cable or satellite company. The only difference it seems is that Aereo want to have its cake and eat it too, without having to pay to the privilege.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

This is no different than a DVR: its MY signal coming from MY television, being time-shifted for later viewing. In Aero's case its being *place*-shifted, but its still being shown only to a SINGLE SCREEN. This decision is pure BS bought and paid for by outmoded middlemen.

Here's a line from Aereo's FAQ "Our basic monthly membership is just $8 a month, plus tax. That gets you 20 hours of DVR space to record your shows. Or, for $4 more, you can upgrade to 60 hours of DVR space and the ability to record two shows at once" They're selling broadcast TV without paying for the stuff their selling and even allowing you to skip the commercials. It's blatant copyright infringement.

Compare to the music services... Pandora, Spotify etc... what if, instead of paying royalties to the studios and musicians they just had someone copy the songs off the radio as they were played and then played them back for paying subscribers. That's obviously illegal, and that's what Aereo is doing with TV.

The fact that you have your own antenna dedicated to you is someone's idea of getting around the rules without using any common sense.

 

[Captain Five]

How can you infringe upon something that a simple antenna can pick up... its like broadcasting a youtube video on TV and someone suing you because you broadcasted something that can be freely and easily viewed by using the internet.

It really is pathetic that some people dont have the intelligence to understand that if anyone can pop up a antenna and get access to those channels that your clearly not infringing on copyrights.... Or am I missing something obvious????

What do you expect. Obama and Holder have pack the Justice Dept with a whole bunch of former RIAA and MPAA lawyers. Of course they are going to think that way.

 

[SchrödingersCat]

I sympathize with the content providers here; they own the content, and no one else should be profiting from the content without their consent.

If you wrote a book, and it was a bestseller, but donated 1 copy to every public library, wouldn't you be pissed if someone jerk photocopied one copy from the library and sold it online, just because you hadn't yet published an online version of the book?

No, I wouldn't be pissed for two reasons: 1) It would be distributed on pirate sites regardless of whether or not I published it online. These people would probably be in the same camp as those reading it at a public library, where I wouldn't see any direct profit either. 2) The people who actually wanted to support my work would send money anyway, either by purchasing a hard copy, buying the eventual digital release, attending a signing or whatever.

 

[chuckmeister]

http://blog.aereo.com/wp-content/up...from-Aereo-on-SCOTUS-response-brief-FINAL.pdf

I'm a little late to the party.

I don't see how this is a matter of copyright infringement. It's within fair use IMO.

Everyone has the right to purchase an antenna for where ever they may be and pickup over the air television. At no cost to them after the initial purchase of the antenna.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Corp._of_America_v._Universal_City_Studios,_Inc.

This ruled it was legal to make personal use recordings of televisions shows to tape. So skip 30 years later, technology changes, you could set up a system in your home to record the shows from antenna to your hard drive, then compress them and upload to where you want for personal use.

This is the same thing, everyone is capable of doing this legally, and Aereo offers a service to do it for you.