U.S. Broadcasters Get Preliminary Injunction Against FilmOn

[satandpcguy]

A federal judge in California issued a preliminary injunction Thursday ordering the “Aereokiller” Filmon service to stop streaming live TV feeds from ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC over the Internet -- finding that it represents illegal retransmission of copyrighted content.

Judge George Wu, of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, issued the injunction Dec. 27 against Aereokiller, FilmOn.com and related services owned by Nigerian-born media entrepreneur Alkiviades "Alki" David. The services are being sued for copyright infringement by ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and related parties, which had requested a preliminary injunction.

“We are pleased, but certainly not surprised, by the court's decision,” Fox spokesman Scott Grogin said via email Friday. CBS and NBC declined to comment.

Representatives for Aereokiller, FilmOn and David did not respond to requests for comment.

[satandpcguy]

In his brief last week, Judge Wu wrote that the broadcasters demonstrated irreparable harm.

“Revenues from retransmission consent licensing have become increasingly important to the broadcast industry, and are used to fund the development and acquisition of broadcast programming,” he wrote. In addition, “Defendants' service also competes with Plaintiffs' ability to develop their own Internet distribution channels.”

As of Friday morning, live TV feeds for the New York affiliates of ABC, CBS and NBC were still available through FilmOn.com. FilmOn and Aereokiller were ordered to file a report affirming and detailing their compliance with the injunction by Jan. 3.

[satandpcguy]

A US federal judge has temporarily blocked FilmOn.com from streaming live television shows on the Internet. In their suit CBS, NBC, Fox, ABC and Disney said FilmOn.com “has been streaming over the Internet … numerous broadcast television stations and the copyrighted programming on those stations – all without the consent of the affected stations or copyright owners.”

The US District Judge in New York ordered FilmOn.com to explain why it shouldn’t be subject to a preliminary injunction. In the meantime, she blocked FilmOn.com from streaming copyrighted content on the Internet or to mobile phones pending a full hearing on the order to show cause. The date of the hearing has yet to be determined.

“We respect the court’s decision in this matter and have temporarily ceased the retransmission of free network television on FilmOn,” said company CEO Alki David. FilmOn.com and a rival site, iviTV, insist that it’s legal to retransmit local broadcast signals without paying copyright fees, citing a copyright exemption for cable TV operators.