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ARTICLE · 14 JULY 2013

WNET v. Aereo, Inc.

Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP
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Defendant Aereo, Inc. ("Aereo") enables its subscribers to watch broadcast television programs over the Internet for a monthly fee.

United StatesIntellectual Property
Eric Perrott
Eric Perrott
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CASE SUMMARY

FACTS

Defendant Aereo, Inc. ("Aereo") enables its subscribers to watch broadcast television programs over the Internet for a monthly fee. Aereo uses thousands of dime-sized antennas to access free over-the-air broadcasting and, at the request of the user, streams those videos to subscribers' devices or saves them for later viewing. Several broadcasters ("the Broadcasters") filed copyright-infringement actions against Aereo, alleging that Aereo violated the Broadcasters' rights to control public performances of their copyrighted works under the 1976 Copyright Act.

The district court denied the Broadcasters' motions for a preliminary injunction, holding that Aereo's system was not materially distinguishable from the system in the Cablevision case, where the Second Circuit held that a cable provider's remote digital video recording services ("remote DVR") did not infringe the copyright holder's public-performance right. The Broadcasters appealed the

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