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OVERNIGHT TECH: Internet TV service countersues broadcasters
THE LEDE: Aereo, a start-up company that plans to allow New York City customers to stream local channels over the Internet, filed a countersuit against a group of broadcasters on Monday.
The broadcast stations, including Fox, Univision, PBS and local New York City affiliates, accused Aereo of planning to stream copyrighted material without permission in a lawsuit earlier this month.
But in a response on Monday, Aereo denied the charges and countersued the broadcasters.
"This case involves nothing more than the application of settled law to updated technology — settled law that establishes conclusively that Aereo's business is entirely lawful," the company wrote in its court filing.
Broadcast television is transmitted over the air for free to customers with a television antenna.
Aereo plans to operate data centers using tiny antennas to pick up the broadcast signals and then transmit the video over the Internet. The company will allow a customer to buy access to one of the antennas, so the customer can watch broadcast television on their computer or tablet.
"Consumers use the Aereo Technology to do no more than what they are entitled to do: access local television broadcasts on the public airwaves using an individual antenna; create unique copies of that broadcast content for their own personal use; and play back their unique recordings to their television or other viewing devices for their personal use," Aereo wrote in its filing.
The company asked the court to declare that its technology does not infringe any copyrights and to force the broadcasters to pay for its legal fees.
"It simply does not matter whether Aereo uses one big antenna to receive Plaintiffs' broadcasts and retransmit them to subscribers, or 'tons' of 'tiny' antennas, as Aereo claims it does," the stations wrote. "Simply put, Aereo is an unauthorized Internet delivery service that is receiving, converting and retransmitting broadcast signals to its subscribers for a fee."
Dish closes spectrum deal: Satellite service Dish Network completed its deal for about $3 billion worth of wireless airwave licenses on Monday after receiving approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The FCC is moving ahead with a formal rule change to allow Dish to operate a wireless cellphone network on the frequencies. Dish had wanted a simple waiver, which would have taken less time than the formal rule-making process, which could take nine months or longer.
"DISH looks forward to working with the FCC on its forthcoming Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) and remains committed to using this spectrum to help the Administration and the FCC solve the nation’s spectrum crunch," Dish Network said in a statement.
Dish may choose to build its own wireless network or it may sell the spectrum to another company.
ICYMI:
Yahoo sued Facebook on Monday, accusing the social media giant of infringing 10 patents, including in advertising and social networking.
The Commerce Department rejected the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' (ICANN's) bid for a long-term contract to continue managing key Internet functions on Monday. Instead, the agency, granted ICANN a six-month extension on its contract to manage the Internet's address and domain systems.
Facebook retained Steptoe & Johnson to lobby on “issues related to social networking,” according to disclosure forms released Monday.
About 18 percent of social media users have blocked, unfriended or hidden someone because of political material the person posted online, a study released Monday by the Pew Center found.
Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) is gathering signatures from lawmakers for a letter urging former Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), now the head of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), to reverse his organization's decision to give an upcoming documentary about bullying an R rating.
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