Watchdog tells Supremes Aereo method is a dodge

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U.S. Supreme CourtIn a friend of the court brief, the Media Institute supported broadcasters in their dispute with the mini-antenna method Aereo is using to co-opt broadcast programming. MI called the method “manipulative technological exploitation.”


MI is urging SCOTUS to grant a petition for certiorari in the case American Broadcasting Companies Inc. v. Aereo Inc.

MI stated, “Aereo employs a technological scheme involving thousands of dime-sized antennas to make individual copies of broadcast content, which it then retransmits to its subscribers.  The company claims that since each copy is intended for a single user, the company is not creating a ‘public performance’ of the copyrighted content that would require payment of licensing fees.”

In the brief, it further explains, “If a picture tells a thousand words, a thousand antennas tell the picture. Aereo’s bizarre engineering, employing thousands of antennas to do the work of one, reveals to all what is really going on.”

The Aereo method amounts to “manipulative technological exploitation,” the brief says.

MI concluded, “This Court should grant the petition to vindicate the clear intent of Congress to protect the copyright interests vested in broadcasters from unfair exploitation,” the brief concludes.

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