Marshall Gerstein & Borun Partner Michael Graham says that Internet TV company Aereo Inc.'s win over broadcasters in WNET v. Aereo Inc. is another example of how new technologies are chipping away at copyright protections. Cases such as this one, as well as Viacom v. YouTube, which held that YouTube is not responsible for infringement that its users commit, are part of the reason why Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante recently called for major revisions to copyright law in her March 4 speech, “The Next Great Copyright Act,” at Columbia University.

“[Aereo] is a clarion call that there will be changes in the Copyright Act,” Graham says. “People need to start considering what changes those might be and to begin forming ideas of what may need to be protected. We will never get away from the problem of technology outpacing copyright law because … it takes between five and 15 years to enact a new law of this magnitude. … So the better course for the law is to establish principles that can be followed regardless of the media that comes in.”

Marshall Gerstein & Borun Partner Michael Graham says that Internet TV company Aereo Inc.'s win over broadcasters in WNET v. Aereo Inc. is another example of how new technologies are chipping away at copyright protections. Cases such as this one, as well as Viacom v. YouTube, which held that YouTube is not responsible for infringement that its users commit, are part of the reason why Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante recently called for major revisions to copyright law in her March 4 speech, “The Next Great Copyright Act,” at Columbia University.

“[Aereo] is a clarion call that there will be changes in the Copyright Act,” Graham says. “People need to start considering what changes those might be and to begin forming ideas of what may need to be protected. We will never get away from the problem of technology outpacing copyright law because … it takes between five and 15 years to enact a new law of this magnitude. … So the better course for the law is to establish principles that can be followed regardless of the media that comes in.”