A federal judge on Monday placed an injunction on unlicensed video-on-demand service provider Zediva, siding with a copyright infringement complaint filed by the major studios in April.
In granting the studio's injunction request, Judge John F. Walter stated that the service "threatens the development of a successful and lawful video-on-demand market."
Here's a statement from the Motion Picture Association of America:
FEDERAL JUDGE GRANTS INJUNCTION AGAINST UNLICENSED VIDEO-ON-DEMAND SERVICE
MPAA Welcomes Zediva Decision
LOS ANGELES— Stating that its “service threatens the development of a successful and lawful video-on-demand market,” federal Judge John F. Walter today granted a preliminary injunction against the operators of Zediva, an unlicensed video-on-demand service that the MPAA’s member studios sued for copyright infringement in April 2011. The following is a statement by Dan Robbins, Senior Vice President and Associate General Counsel for the MPAA, in response to the ruling in Los Angeles:
“Judge Walter’s decision is a great victory for the more than two million American men and women whose livelihoods depend on a thriving film and television industry. Judge Walter rejected Zediva’s argument that it was ‘renting’ movies to its users, and ruled, by contrast, that Zediva violated the studios’ exclusive rights to publicly perform their movies, such as through authorized video-on-demand services.
“Movie fans today have more on-demand options than ever for watching films at home, from iTunes to Netflix to Amazon to Vudu to Hulu to the VOD offerings from cable and satellite operators. All these legitimate companies have obtained licenses from the copyright owners. The court found Zediva’s service threatened the development of these lawful VOD and Internet-based services.”
