Aereo startup tries to thwart additional lawsuits

(AP)—TV-over-the-Internet startup Aereo wants a federal court to declare its service legal across the nation.

Aereo takes free signals from the airwaves and sends them over the Internet to paying subscribers.

Federal courts in New York have been issuing preliminary rulings declaring that Aereo's service is permitted under copyright law. CBS Corp., however, threatened a lawsuit in Boston after Aereo announced plans to start service there next week. The Boston court would not be bound by New York's rulings.

Aereo says additional lawsuits would be duplicative and wasteful. To thwart them, Aereo is asking the U.S. District Court in New York to declare outright that its service doesn't infringe on broadcasters' copyrights, consistent with the preliminary rulings so far. The declaration sought would apply to Aereo's expansion markets, including Boston.

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