David Halberstadter, a partner in the Entertainment and Media practice, spoke with Law360 regarding efforts by the nation’s broadcasters to obtain a ruling from the US Supreme Court that streaming service Aereo Inc. violates copyright law. Aereo uses banks of tiny antennae to retransmit broadcast television signals to individual Internet users, raising the issue of whether retransmission through such a system constitutes a public performance of copyrighted content under the Copyright Act’s transmit clause. The networks are relying on the Supreme Court’s discretionary power to take “important” cases, but David explains that unless the high court uses that “accepted and usual course” discretion, it is “unlikely to grant a petition for a writ of certiorari until and unless the Ninth Circuit and/or the D.C. Circuit weighs in and affirm their respective district courts’ issuance of preliminary injunctions against Aereo.” (“Aereo Saga to Get Poor Reception in High Court for Now,” October 15, 2013)