Aereo Inc. has reached a
proposed settlement with the broadcasters that have sued it for
infringing their copyrighted works. The settlement would result in
payment of $950,000 to the broadcasters in satisfaction of their
claims seeking over $99 million – amounting to less than a
penny on the dollar.
This development follows lengthy legal proceedings that saw the
dispute go all the way to the Supreme Court on the issue whether
Aereo was publicly performing the plaintiffs' television shows,
originally broadcast over the air for free, by streaming them to
subscribers over the Internet. Section 106 of the Copyright Act
reserves to the copyright owner six exclusive rights, including the
right to publicly perform literary, musical, dramatic and motion
picture works. In the so-called "Transmit Clause," the
statute provides that "to perform or display a work
'publicly' means ... To transmit or otherwise communicate a
performance or display of the work . . . to the public,
