The US Second Circuit has held that a service streaming copyrighted television programming live and over the Internet does not constitute a “cable system”, and so is not covered by the US Copyright Act § 111 statutory license for retransmission.

As Kilpatrick Townsend reports, the Second Circuit found that the relevant statutory text did not clearly answer the question of whether Internet streaming constituted a cable system. However, when the Second Circuit examined the legislative intent, it found that “Congress did not intend for § 111’s compulsory license to extend to Internet retransmissions.”