Several Utah broadcasters and Fox are seeking a...
Several Utah broadcasters and Fox are seeking a preliminary injunction against Internet streaming service Aereo that would bar it from transmitting copyrighted material in most of the U.S., according to filings in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City. “Aereo’s…
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conduct is copyright infringement and should be preliminarily enjoined,” said a motion filed by Community Television of Utah, KUTV and Fox. Aereo launched in Utah six weeks ago, and has been retransmitting broadcasts from Salt Lake City stations KSTU, KUTV and KMYU in St. George, said the filings. Aereo’s service undermines the broadcasters’ ability to conduct retransmission consent negotiations, said the filings. The broadcasters have asked the court to grant an injunction that would apply everywhere in the U.S. except for the jurisdiction of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, where Aereo won its challenge against a previous injunction earlier this year (CD April 2 ). Hearst is also seeking an injunction against Aereo in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts for its Boston service (CD July 17 p6). In addition to Salt Lake City and Boston, Aereo streams broadcast TV in New York, Atlanta, Miami, Houston and Dallas, said a release from Aereo. The injunction sought against Aereo in Utah is similar to one granted against competing service FilmOn X in Washington, D.C., U.S. District Court in September (CD Sept 9 p18). FilmOn -- formerly called Aereokiller -- appealed that injunction to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit last month, and is awaiting a decision on another appealed injunction in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California (CD Aug 29 p5). Aereo is also still in the midst of the case in U.S. District Court in New York that originally spawned the injunction that it successfully challenged in the 2nd Circuit. An Aereo spokeswoman said in an email that Fox had failed in its previous attempts to get an injunction in New York and the broadcaster is “simply not entitled to repeated do-overs on this matter.” Aereo will respond “to this latest attempt at a mulligan in due course,” said the spokeswoman. A New York magistrate judge ruled Monday that Aereo founder Chet Kanojia and Chief Technical Officer Joseph Lipowski will have to submit to an additional hour of deposition from plaintiffs ABC and WNET and will have to answer questions about Aereo’s patents. Aereo had asked Judge Henry Pitman to reconsider the ruling, citing attorney-client privilege and other arguments. However, Pitman denied the request for reconsideration. “It is beyond question that the attorney client privilege protects only communications with counsel, not the underlying facts that are communicated to counsel,” said Pitman.