ABC Warns Supreme Court That It May “Reconsider” Free TV If Aereo Wins

By DAVID LIEBERMANFebruary 24, 2014 1:22 PM

That would be a problem, the network says in a brief filed today, because “Millions of Americans still rely on free over-the-air broadcasts to receive television programming.” What’s more, “broadcast television not only continues to carry the majority of the country’s most popular shows, but also remains a critically important source of local and national news.” Broadcasters would have little choice but to “reconsider the quality and quantity of the programs they broadcast for free over the air,” ABC asserts, because a Supreme Court ruling that deems Aereo to be legal “would launch a race by cable and satellite companies to develop competing methods to capture copyrighted content and re-sell it without paying for the right to do so.” Aereo says that its subscription streaming service merely leases to consumers the antennas and other technologies that they already can use to watch over-the-air television for free. But ABC counters that Aereo violates a part of the Copyright Act of 1976 called the “Transmit Clause.” It gives a copyright owner an exclusive right to “perform the work publicly,” even with new technologies. The clause “was added to overturn Supreme Court rulings adopting the very ‘equipment provider’ defense Aereo is advancing,” ABC says. Congress didn’t want decisions “to turn on technical specifications — that is why it extended the public-performance right to ‘any device or process’.” The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on April 22.

See original article at: http://tv.yahoo.com/news/abc-warns-supreme-court-may-reconsider-free-tv-212258825.html

Aereo's business plan is just plain goofy. Either the service turns out to be a flop, in which case nobody cares what they do, or it succeeds enough to support the company, in which case they will be stopped.

The notion that it's politically possible for congress to allow the wholesale appropriation of the networks' copyrighted content represents a fundamental misapprehension of the way congress-critters operate. It's a lead pipe cinch that the broadcast lobby has lined up the votes to 'clarify' the Copyright Act in the event the Supreme Court rules adversely.

I want it! There is nothing I watch on ABC since I got my Tivo. And if they did stop broadcasting then they would have to give back the public signal and another company would be happy to offer over the air programming.

ABC may have the legal right of it, but they're full of shit.

The broadcast for free, but somebody gives the rest of us help getting the free signal and it's a horror?

Just makes me glad again that I cut my cable so I pay those money grubbing bastards as little as possible.

Ain't a question of right or wrong. Or principle or the public interest. It's about who can muster the lobbying clout to muscle their self interest through Congress.