14 DAY TRIAL // Aereo has stopped working following the Supreme Court decision made last week, as the company has decided to take a break.
“We have decided to pause our operations temporarily as we consult with the court and map out our next steps,” writes Aereo’s Chet Kanojia, founder and CEO of the company.
Access to the cloud-based antenna and DVR is now officially closed, even though the company did allow users to get their last fix of Aereo until noon on Saturday. Refunds will be handed out to users for their last paid month.
Aereo is a service that provides users with a small antenna that they can rent which is stored on the company’s server farms. Aereo also gives customers access to a cloud storage service that serves as a DVR.
The company claims that it shouldn’t have to pay royalties to broadcasters because the antennas only capture over the air signals, something that millions of people do on their own on a daily basis. Aereo claims that all it does is rent people equipment, but the US Supreme Court doesn’t agree.
In fact, the judges deemed the company’s actions illegal, considering that Aereo was more of a cable company than an equipment provider.
“The spectrum that the broadcasters use to transmit over the air programming belongs to the American public and we believe you should have a right to access that live programming whether your antenna sits on the roof of your home, on top of your television or in the cloud,” Kanojia said, showing that he clearly continues to believe in his startup’s business model.
Aereo will now try to figure out a way to move forward and has directed fans and customers to the Protect My Antenna website that it created back when the case was taken on by the Supreme Court. Among its supporters stand the American Cable Association, law professors, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a series of small and independent broadcasters in the US, and more.
Despite all the support and what seems to be perfectly logical arguments, the company was not successful in its fight against the big networks in the United States.
Kanojia said that the decision taken by the United States Supreme Court was, in the first place, a massive setback for the American consumer. “We’ve said all along that we worked diligently to create a technology that complies with the law, but today’s decision clearly states that how the technology works does not matter. This sends a chilling message to the technology industry,” he added following the ruling.