Aereo pushes for emergency ruling to stay alive, judge says it 'jumped the gun'

The American court system has a very strict process and there’s little wiggle room, even when you are a startup tech company trying to stay alive after the Supreme Court called everything you do a violation of copyrights. Aereo tried to get an emergency ruling to stay alive, but apparently they “jumped the gun” by ignoring a judge.

Last night, Aereo sent a filing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, asking for emergency permission to begin operating as a “cable company.” According to Reuters, Aereo told U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan that it is “figuratively bleeding to death” unless it can start operating in some way to offset the “staggering costs” for making changes to its operations.

Nathan, who has been handling the case since the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in June that the company violated copyrights by not paying licensing fees to content providers, wasn’t happy that Aereo didn’t contact her before making the emergency filing. She thinks the process needs a little more time.

According to Deadline, she believes the company “jumped the gun” with the filing. She has now given Aereo two weeks to come up with a proposed order based on the Supreme Court decision.

Since being ruled an illegal service based on the way it used to operate, the online TV company decided that it would try to be considered a traditional cable company. That idea did hit a snag when the U.S. Copyright Office shot them down.

Aereo had worked by using antennae to pick up the free over-the-air broadcasts from the networks and stream that online to users who paid as little as $8 a month. The company claimed it was just like an old-fashioned antennae, but the networks disagreed. The added DVR storage feature probably didn’t help their argument. Back on June 28, Aereo suspended service.

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