In the past year, Aereo has fought legal battles in three different states with broadcasters looking to get the streaming TV service kicked off the air, if you catch my drift.
Tomorrow, the case goes to the main stage before the Supreme Court, where lawyers from both sides will make oral arguments.
The case is highly complex, with broadcasters alleging that Aereo has no right to stream its copyrighted content, and Aereo arguing that the consumer has control over the content and its recording, and that Aereo simply provides the antenna from a remote location.
Many legal precedents go into the case, including the Sony Betamax ruling, which gave consumers the right to record broadcast television to a VCR. A more recent Cablevision precedent also comes into play, that said consumers who legally acquire copyrighted content have the right to stream and record it as they choose, whether the content itself is stored in the box in their living room or in the cloud.
Then there’s the potential effects on cloud storage services like Dropbox and Google Drive.
With so many moving parts, we thought it was smart to sit down with Chet Kanojia, Aereo CEO, and have him explain the terms of the case in his own words.
If you’d like to get a closer look into Aereo’s technology, check out our rooftop tour of their Boston facility. Tomorrow, we’ll be covering the court case closely so be sure to stay tuned.