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Supreme Court Rules Against Aereo

By J. Alexander Lawrence
August 02, 2014

On June 25, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in ABC v. Aereo, Inc., No. 13-461 (U.S. 2014). In a 6-3 decision, the Court reversed the Second Circuit's holding that Aereo did not directly infringe the copyright owners' public performance rights through the operation of the “Watch Now” function of its service.

In reaching its decision, the Court held that it needed to answer two narrow questions. First, does Aereo perform the copyright works at issue? Second, if Aereo does perform those works, does it perform them publicly?

After answering both of those questions in the affirmative, the Court went to great lengths to make clear that its decision should be read narrowly, noting that it does not address the legal status of other technologies not before the Court. Nevertheless, the Court's ruling is an important one, and copyright owners probably will rely on the decision in challenging new business models engaged in the unauthorized transmissions of copyrighted works. It remains to be seen how broadly the Court's narrowly crafted decision will be interpreted by the lower courts addressing other technologies.

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