Supreme Court strikes down mobile television broadcasting!

The days of Aereo, an internet service that allows customers to watch broadcast TV programs on mobile devices, may be numbered after the company was dealt a potentially fatal blow by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 25.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - By a vote of 6-3, the Supreme Court found that Aereo violates federal copyright law by retransmitting copyrighted program without paying the copyright fee.

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The suit was brought up by America's major TV broadcast networks shortly after the company's 2013 launch. In the suit, they claimed that Aereo had illegally retransmitted their programs without paying for them.

Aereo was launched in New York and then extended to 10 other U.S. cities. The company's service allowed customers to watch over-the-air programs either live or recorded on a smartphone, tablet, or computer for around $8 a month.

Writing for the majority, Justice Stephen Breyer stressed that the decision was limited and that it won't "discourage the emergence or use of different kinds of technologies."

Lower federal courts have made opposing rulings on the company's legality.

The core issue of the case is a portion of a federal law that applies to public exposure of copyrighted works.

That law regulates the transmission of a program "to the public, by means of any device or process, whether the members of the public capable of receiving the performance or display receive it in the same place or in separate places  and at the same time or different times."

Among the broadcasters who were part of the suit was the Walt Disney Co., which issued a statement that, "We're gratified the Court upheld important Copyright principles that help ensure that the high-quality creative content consumers expect and demand is protected and incentivized."

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