Mark your calendars: April 22 is the day the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the Aereo case. The court released its schedule this week.
TV broadcasters sued Aereo in 2012 when it began offering online access to New York City TV stations. Aereo has argued that it designed its system to mimic the remote-storage DVRs that a federal court had already ruled to be allowed under copyright law. So far, a series of courts have found some merit to those claims; no court has yet issued the injunction broadcasters have requested against Aereo.
That lack of action on the broadcasters' injunction request will now be heard before the Supreme Court. Initial briefs are due to the high court before the end of the month with responses due shortly after, according to a report in Variety.
The fact that the Supreme Court is going to take the case has not halted all Aereo-related litigation. A court in Utah on Tuesday held a hearing over whether it should grant an injunction that broadcasters are seeking against Aereo in that state and over whether it should transfer the case to another venue. Last week the same court heard arguments over an Aereo motion to stop the proceedings until the Supreme Court rules, court filings show. The court has yet to rule on any of those motions.
For more:
- See the Supreme Court docket
- Variety had this report
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