The legal system has doled out yet another defeat to Aereo.
The company, which was slapped down in June by the U.S. Supreme Court, which determined that Aereo’s service violated the broadcast networks’ copyrights by transmitting its content, was hit with a preliminary injunction by a U.S. District Court judge in New York on Thursday.
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Granting the networks’ request for a preliminary injunction, Judge Alison J. Nathan barred Aereo from “streaming, transmitting, retransmitting or otherwise publicly performing any copyrighted programming over the Internet.”in which it uses millions of antennas to beam broadcasters’ signals to subscribers’ devices, violates broadcasters’ copyrights.
Web-based video service Aereo uses millions of antennas to beam broadcasters’ signals to subscribers’ devices.
Following the Supreme Court decision earlier this year, Aereo tried a different approach and argued in U.S. District Court in New York that the service operates as a cable company and requested a license to operate as such, arguing that the company is “entitled to the benefits of the copyright statutory license pursuant to the Copyright Act.”
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Nathan shot down that argument in her opinion, writing in part, “To begin with, Aereo’s argument suffers from the fallacy that simply because an entity performs copyrighted works in a way similar to the cable systems it must then be deemed a cable system for all other purposes of the Copyright Act.”
Nathan’s ruling reverses the court’s earlier decision to allow Aereo to broadcast television content over the internet, a decision that was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday.
The judge concluded, “In light of the Supreme Court’s decision, Plaintiffs are now able to demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits. The balance of hardships also now tips in their favor and, as previously held, an injunction would not disserve the public interest … Therefore, the Court hereby holds that Plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction barring Aereo from retransmitting programs to its subscribers while the programs are still being broadcast is GRANTED.”
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.