Aereo shut itself down Saturday morning — three days after the Supreme Court declared the over-the-top TV-delivery service illegal.
But Aereo founder Chet Kanojia stopped short of raising a white flag.
“We have decided to pause our operations temporarily as we consult with the court and map out our next steps,” he wrote in an email to customers.
Kanojia also said customers will receive refunds for their last paid month.
The email contained some proselytizing as well.
“The spectrum that the broadcasters use to transmit over the air programming belongs to the American public,” wrote the Court-declared violater of copyright law.
“We believe you should have a right to access that live programming whether your antenna sits on the roof of your home, on top of your television or in the cloud.”
Since its start in 2012, with backing from Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp, the $8-a-month service threatened the video ecosystem by circumventing retransmission payments from cable companies to broadcast networks for the right to carry their content.
While media watchers believe much of America’s video-delivery system is archaic, the Court determined Aereo’s cloud-based antenna and DVR combination is not the way to dismantle it.
Kanojia implied there’ll be more assaults on TV as we know it by beginning his email with a quote from inventor Charles Kettering: “The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.”