Hollywood studios’ injunction against family-friendly startup affirmed
A group of Hollywood studios has received a boost in its fight against alleged piracy, as a federal appeals court judge backed the companies’ injunction against a start-up streaming site.
The case involved VidAngel, which streams family-friendly versions of movies that filter out obscenities, nudity and violence, and charges $7.99 a month.
Allegedly, the company purchased discs containing copyrighted movies, decrypted the discs to “rip” a digital copy to a computer, and then streamed to its customers a filtered version of the works.
Studios including Disney Enterprises and Warner Brothers Entertainment sued the company for copyright infringement last year and were granted a preliminary injunction.
The district court found that VidAngel had probably violated both the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Copyright Act, and preliminarily enjoined the company from using the technology to access and edit the copyrighted material.
VidAngel appealed in December after raising funds through crowdfunding, but the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit backed the district court in an opinion (pdf) handed down yesterday, August 24.
Circuit Judge Andrew Hurwitz stated that “in light of the public’s clear interest in retaining access to these works, we conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in finding that a preliminary injunction is in the public interest”.
Despite the opinion finding in favour of the studios, VidAngel remained defiant.
After raising over $10 million in funds through crowdfunding, according to Crowdfund Insider, the company is aiming to continue to fight the case.
VidAngel CEO Neal Harmon said in a statement that the company is “just getting started”.
“We will fight for a family’s right to filter on modern technology all the way,” he said in a statement.
He added: “Today’s decision has absolutely no impact on VidAngel’s current service; we remain open for business. While all of the legal back-and-forth plays out, we know our customers are grateful to still have a way to protect their kids.”
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