The US Supreme Court will consider an appeal of a lawsuit brought by the four major US broadcast networks against Aereo, Inc.. Aereo uses antennae to capture the local broadcast signals of the major networks, then places the recorded programs on-line.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to consider a lawsuit brought by the nation’s largest TV broadcasters against Aereo, the upstart streaming video service, lays the foundation for a landmark verdict that could have important implications for Internet streaming, cloud computing, and the future of the TV industry itself. Aereo has infuriated the major broadcasters because the two-year-old startup pays nothing to pick up their free, over-the-air TV signals, which it then sends to its customers over the Internet.

Aereo, which launched in February 2012 after raising more than $20 million from media mogul Barry Diller’s Internet conglomerate IAC, uses thousands of tiny, dime-sized antennas to pick up free, over-the-air TV signals, which it sends to customers via the Internet for $8 to $12 per month. Aereo’s users technically lease the tiny antennas, which are housed in nearby “antenna farms.” In New York, Aereo’s antennas are located in a warehouse in Brooklyn with a direct line of sight to the Empire State Building, the city’s tallest broadcast transmission tower.

Shortly after it launched, Aereo was sued by the major broadcasting titans, including NBC, FOX, ABC and CBS. The broadcasters say that Aereo’s service amounts to blatant theft, because the company doesn’t pay retransmission fees. Federal courts in New York and Boston, however, have thus far agreed with Aereo’s argument that it is transmitting “private performances” to individual users over their own leased antennas, not copyright-protected “public performances.”

Here’s Aereo’s side of the story.