WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has ruled that a startup Internet company has to pay broadcasters when it takes television programs from the airwaves and allows subscribers to watch them on smartphones and other portable devices.
The justices said Wednesday by a 6-3 vote that Aereo Inc. is violating the broadcasters’ copyrights by taking the signals for free. The ruling preserves the ability of the television networks to collect huge fees from cable and satellite systems that transmit their programming.
Aereo is available in New York, Boston and Atlanta among 11 metropolitan areas and uses thousands of dime-size antennas to capture television signals and transmit them to subscribers who pay as little as $8 a month for the service.
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Read the decision below:
Wow; amazed that I agree with Scalia, Thomas, and Alito on this one.
Just when you think that the Court is going to mitigate its longstanding hatred of all things that big business hates and do something proper, it ruins the day the cell phone decision comes out with another big business is always right decision.
Agreed. Though it’s amusing that when the dispute is between two competing business interests, Scalia rediscovers his opposition to legislating from the bench: