Tuesday’s oral argument at the U.S. Supreme Court in the ongoing Aereo legal battle offered a little bit of hope for both sides, with the justices blasting the company’s business model, while expressing deep reservations about issuing a ruling that may have unintended consequences for technological innovation.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts had particularly harsh words for Aereo.

“Your technological model is based solely on circumventing legal prohibitions that you don’t want to comply with,” he told Aereo attorney David C. Frederick.

Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg added: “you are the only player so far that pays no royalties whatsoever.”

Aereo uses arrays of tiny antennas about the size of a dime to stream broadcast television signals to subscribers’ smartphones, tablets, computers, and some TV streaming boxes.

Subscribers pay Aereo a minimum of $8 per month, but the company doesn’t pay the broadcasters anything—which they say violates their copyrights [You can read Brief’s full primer on the case here].

But Aereo might also take solace in some of the questions coming from other justices on Tuesday, notably Stephen G. Breyer.

“I don’t understand if the decision I write for or against you will affect other technologies,” Breyer said when questioning Frederick. Everyone knew he was referring to cloud computing, the big elephant in the room.

“The cloud computing industry is freaked out about this case,” Frederick told the court.

Former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, arguing for the broadcasters, was blunt: “If all they have here is a gimmick, they will probably go out of business and no one should shed a tear.”

A ruling is expected sometime in June.

The courtroom was packed with media execs, including Aereo founder Barry Diller, Fox co-COO James Murdoch, and Fox TV’s Peter Rice. MPAA boss Chris Dodd was also there, as was Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia.

Read More: Full Transcript of Argument, The New York Times, Deadline

Brief Take: It’s always difficult to read the Supreme Court tea leaves after an oral argument, but the tone of the questioning was decidedly against Aereo on Tuesday.

Tags:


  Save as PDF