US government to argue against Aereo at Supreme Court hearing this week

Major US broadcasters have found an ally in their case against Aereo, the streaming television service that uses thousands of micro antennas to pull in free over-the-air signals. Deadline reports that the US Supreme Court has granted a motion from the Deputy Solicitor General to appear during oral arguments on April 22nd as an amicus curiae in support of broadcaster’s claims that Aereo infringes their copyrights.

The Obama Administration earlier requested permission to argue its perspective on the case before the justices on grounds that the decision will make important decisions about “the scope of the public-performance right in the context of novel technologies for transmitting and viewing copyrighted audiovisual works using the internet.” The White House made clear in an amicus brief that it believes Aereo should have to pay the same retransmission fees to networks like CBS, ABC, NBC, and FOX as cable and satellite providers. The Deputy Solicitor General will now have ten minutes out of the hour-long oral arguments to present the government’s position on the matter.