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posted by NCommander on Wednesday June 25 2014, @03:55PM   Printer-friendly
from the why-we-can't-have-nice-things dept.

The United States Supreme Court has ruled 6-3 against Aereo, saying that Aereo's scheme to lease out thousands of tiny antennas doesn't differentiate it from a cable company, and therefore Aereo violates copyright law. "In a 6-3 opinion (PDF) written by Justice Steven Breyer, Aereo was found to violate copyright law. According to the opinion, the company is the equivalent of a cable company, which must pay licensing fees when broadcasting over-the-air content. "Viewed in terms of Congress; regulatory objectives, these behind-the-scenes technological differences do not distinguish Aereo's system from cable systems, which do perform publicly," reads the opinion."

 
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by captain normal on Wednesday June 25 2014, @04:17PM

    by captain normal (2205) on Wednesday June 25 2014, @04:17PM (#59937)

    The interesting thing about this decision is that Scalia, Thomas and Alito were the 3 dissenting judges. Aren't these guys usually on the side of Big Biz?

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday June 25 2014, @04:25PM

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Wednesday June 25 2014, @04:25PM (#59942) Journal

    Yes I noticed that too. I was expecting Sotomayor, Ginsburg, and perhaps Kagan to be the dissent. That they aren't, and that the dissent comes from the most extreme conservatives on the court I think again points up one of the biggest faults of the so-called political left, which is their copyright extremism. They're liberal on most things. But the left is not at all the left on anything Hollywood is against, like extensive reform of copyright. Heck, can't even get them to admit that copying is copying, not stealing.

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by NCommander on Wednesday June 25 2014, @04:28PM

      by NCommander (2) Subscriber Badge <michael@casadevall.pro> on Wednesday June 25 2014, @04:28PM (#59946) Homepage Journal

      Actually, in the dissent, they felt that Aereo is running around existing laws, but this isn't SCOTUS's job to fix, its Congress (page 33/34) of the brief).

      --
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      • (Score: 2) by Theophrastus on Wednesday June 25 2014, @05:01PM

        by Theophrastus (4044) on Wednesday June 25 2014, @05:01PM (#59960)

        I believe enforcing existing laws is the executive branch's job. (writing new laws: congress; checking that those laws are constitutional and interpreting actions against established law: judiciary) at least that's what "schoolhouse rock" would have us believe. (yet we really need a new set of those excellent cartoons to how K-street factors in)

        • (Score: 1) by Max Hyre on Friday June 27 2014, @08:47PM

          by Max Hyre (3427) <{maxhyre} {at} {yahoo.com}> on Friday June 27 2014, @08:47PM (#61078)
          ...is everybody's business. The Constitution requires that the President swear to

          [...] preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.
              
          -- said Constitution [archives.gov]

          and much the same goes for the VP, all of Congress, and Federal judges.

          Unfortunately, as observed in Cracking DES [cryptome.org], ``All too often, convincing Congress to violate the Constitution is like convincing a cat to follow a squeaking can opener[.]''

      • (Score: 2) by evilviper on Wednesday June 25 2014, @09:54PM

        by evilviper (1760) on Wednesday June 25 2014, @09:54PM (#60083) Homepage Journal

        Actually, in the dissent, they felt that Aereo is running around existing laws,

        How very strange that compliance with the letter-of-the-law is perfectly okay for big financial institutions, but not so for tech companies.

        but this isn't SCOTUS's job to fix, its Congress

        The courts *interpret* laws, and wherever it's unclear, try to base decisions on the *intentions* of those who created it, rather than the letter.

        --
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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by SpockLogic on Wednesday June 25 2014, @08:23PM

    by SpockLogic (2762) on Wednesday June 25 2014, @08:23PM (#60041)

    I agree with Justice Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

    Wow, I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd ever write that.

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