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But some justices also raised concerns that a decision siding with the television broadcasters could have far-reaching effects on new Internet, cloud and other technologies - from companies such as Google, Microsoft, DropBox and Box, which would then be swept up in other questions about the reach of copyright laws. Justice Stephen Breyer told the networks' attorney, Paul Clement, that his legal argument "makes me nervous about taking your preferred route" and that he was concerned about what a decision “will do for other technologies.” Justice Sotomayor continued this line of thought, citing different technologies–Dropbox, iCloud, Roku and Simple.TV - and asked lawyers for both sides to make distinctions between them and Aereo. At one point she gave the example of a coaxial cable supplier and asked Clement, “How do I avoid a definition [of ‘public performance’] that might make those people liable?”
The company's fate was placed in the hands of the Supreme Court when ABC network, CBS Broadcasting, Comcast's NBCUniversal and Twenty-First Century Fox appealed a decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in April 2013 that denied their request to shut Aereo down while litigation moved forward.
The Electronic Frontiers Foundation (EFF) commented "The Court will probably decide the case by late June. Yesterday’s oral arguments didn’t give much indication of how the Supreme Court will ultimately rule. But they made clear that the Court is rightfully concerned about side effects of too broad a ruling. It's only in the most narrow sense that Aereo is a case about dime-sized antennas. Fortunately, the Court seems to realize that the issues it raises are much, much larger."
Following the oral arguments, counsel for Aereo, David Frederick, said, "The court's decision today will have significant consequences for cloud computing. We're confident, cautiously optimistic, based on the way the hearing went today that the Court understood that a person watching over-the-air broadcast television in his or her home is engaging in a private performance and not a public performance that would implicate the Copyright Act."
New York University School of Law Professor Chris Sprigman explains the copyright law behind the Supreme Court case with 'billions of dollars' of re-transmission fees at stake - and what the decision may mean for the television industry going forward on Bloomberg Television’s Market Makers http://www.bloomberg.com/video/aereo-broadcast-television-and-u-s-copyright-law-QcnU7kRoQQueVRpa30L9cg.html
More on the Washington Post here and the EFF here.
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