Advocates support Aereo TV

Public interest advocates at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge are teaming up to defend Barry Diller's Aereo, which has come under fire from broadcasters who are suing the nascent broadcasting time-shifter for copyright infringement.

Aereo lets subscribers watch broadcast television on their computers or mobile devices for a fee, using antennas connected to the Internet at data centers. Broadcasters claim the company is pirating their signals for profit, but Aereo claims there is no infringement because each subscriber has his own antenna.

“By providing an antenna to viewers, Aereo does nothing more than make it easier for viewers to access a broadcaster’s free service. By making free TV better Aereo improves and does not disrupt the television industry, and helps carry out the important public goal of preserving the ability of viewers to watch free-to-air TV," the advocates wrote in a brief to the court.

"Copyright protections promote a local broadcasting system that serves tens of millions of Americans every day with high quality news, entertainment, sports and lifeline emergency weather information," Dennis Wharton, a spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters, told The Hill. "A plaintiffs' win in this case will ensure the continued availability of this programming to the viewing public."