On June 25, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a ruling of the Second Circuit that would have legitimized a business model based entirely on the unauthorized, for-profit exploitation of the copyrighted works of others. The decision marked a victory for WLF, which filed a brief in the case charging the U.S. Court of Appeals with misapplying federal copyright law, in contravention of the plain text and legislative history of the Copyright Act of 1976. Agreeing with WLF that the exclusive right of “public performance” is among the most critically important and economically significant rights that federal law grants to copyright holders, the Court reversed the appeals court’s ruling and held that the Internet-based subscription service Aereo “publicly performs” a copyrighted television program under the relevant statute when it retransmits a broadcast of that program to its thousands of paid internet subscribers.