The Cablevision customers only have access to programming that the customer is legally entitled to, even with the cloud DVR. The Aereo customers only have access to programming that they are legally entitled to in their DMA with an OTA antenna.
The point is that Cablevision had a right to the material to sell! They have contracts with the providers to be able to sell their programming. So I don't see how the Cablevision parallel with Aereo is as clean.
According to SCOTUS decision about Cablevision, the Aereo customer is recording the content. Aereo is only providing the hardware for the customer to control.
A DVR in the cloud. After looking up a few things, I think I'm starting to turn round on this.
The service gives you access to a single antenna that is capable of only receiving one channel at a time. But it is very complicated.
Aereo is capturing and distributing live OTA television without rights for a fee. This is still true. There is no difference in what is happening with the company if either the following are the spoken word:
- For $8 we'll let you stream live OTA television!
- For $8 we'll lease you an antenna, and access to our massively complicated encoding system, and DVR that will let you stream live OTA
They say they are doing the later, but it is no different than the first thing as well, which would be illegal without an agreement with the broadcasters. The case seems to be entirely entrenched in the fine print.