Re:Supreme court: Aereo is violating copyright law [pdf]
by bediger4000 on Wednesday June 25, 2014 @11:14AM
(#7944448)
One man's loophole in the law is another man's strict conformance to the law. It looks to me like Aereo read the text of the law very carefully, and did what they could to provide for a consumer demand.
The only problem is that Aereo didn't get enough money fast enough to "create an ecosystem" or whatever the phrase is when you mean "monied interest not afraid to lobby for their cause".
To support that would set bad precedent, I think--both legally and technologically. Even if you hate copyright, I'd argue that this ruling is probably better in the long run because it clarifies the situation and the fight.
From that perspective I think the decision is essentially correct, although I'm sure it will be unpopular here.
However, I did read the syllabus, and there is some language in there referencing viewer participation in a public performance, that seems worrisome. But I'm not a lawyer, so I will be interested to see informed discussion of whether the specific legislation and precedents were applied correctly, and what implications were created by this decision.