Aereo Tells Judge Not to Mind FilmOn Injunction

A federal judge in DC granted TV broadcasters' motion for an injunction against Alki David's FilmOn X. In a pending case against Aereo, notice of the ruling was given. Hearst Stations, owner of ABC affiliate WCVB-TV, told its Massachusetts federal judge of what happened. Attorneys for Aereo responded with their own interpretation. It represents a look at what one digital service (Aereo) thinks of another (FilmOn) and how Aereo sees the DC judge's interpretation of copyright law.

Aereo bulletpoints a list of reasons why US District Judge Nathaniel Gorton shouldn't put too much importance in what the other judge said. First, of course, is that the technology is allegedly different. The DC judge is also said by Aereo to have misinterpreted copyright law by looking at the commercial nature of an enterprise to determine whether a performance is public or private, misused her terminology ("the Opinion improperly conflates 'work' with 'performance,') and ignored other authorities. Among what was ignored as allegedly relevant was a 9th Circuit ruling concerning Dish's ad-skipping Hopper service that emphasized "the importance of the user's volition." But our favorite reason has to be that the 2nd Circuit knows best.