A federal judge tells the streaming company that it should have nixed streaming major broadcasters’ shows to smartphones and tablets as soon as the Supreme Court ruled against Aereo for doing so. FilmOn continued its service for nearly two weeks after the Aereo decision.
In a motion to intervene, Alki David’s company says that it will be impacted by the high court’s ruling, but that the streaming service has an “incentive” not to represent its interest.
Streaming TV service FilmOn X suffered another setback in court this week, when an appellate panel said it won’t rule on the company’s request to lift an injunction against it until after the Supreme Court decides whether Aereo is legal. The order, issued on Thursday by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, leaves FilmOn X unable to stream TV shows in the U.S., except for three states: New York, Vermont and Connecticut. The three-judge panel that stayed FilmOn X’s appeal didn’t state a reason for its decision.
Aereo says in court papers filed late last week that it “has a direct interest” in FilmOn X’s appeal, given that any appellate decision about FilmOn X “could affect the ability of Aereo and other ‘cloud computing’ Internet services to expand their technology offering to consumers.”
The federal judge who prohibited FilmOn X from operating didn’t adequately consider the “public interest in innovation,” a coalition of nonprofits argue in new court papers. The groups — Public Knowledge, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Engine Advocacy — criticize the reasoning of U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer, who issued an injunction against FilmOn X earlier this year.
The federal judge who recently prohibited online video company FilmOn X from operating “misunderstands FilmOn X’s technology and misinterprets the plain language of the Copyright Act,” the start-up argues in papers filed with a federal appellate court.
Exclusives
FilmOn X Goes On Offensive, Sues WWCI
FilmOn X, which recently lost battles over its streaming service in Washington and Los Angeles, is hoping for better luck in federal court. Last week, the streaming service filed an action against noncommercial WWCI in Illinois, where the startup is asking for a declaratory judgment that it doesn’t infringe copyright.
TV broadcasters officially asked U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer to hold online video company FilmOn X in contempt for streaming TV programs in Massachusetts earlier this month.
Online video company FilmOn TV says it conducted a brief test of its service in New England last week, despite an injunction prohibiting the company from streaming TV programs in that part of the country.
Aereo’s legal win against TV broadcasters won’t help Alki David’s company … at least for now. And the judge in the case wants to know why “it appears that FilmOn X may be acting in defiance” of her preliminary injunction order. She’s ordered David’s company to show cause, in writing, why it should not be held in contempt. FilmOn X has until Oct. 21 to respond.
Online video startup FilmOn X is asking U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer in Washington, D.C. to revise her earlier order banning the company from streaming over-the-air TV shows to users. The start-up says a recent decision involving Aereo — which offers a similar service requires Collyer to modify her order.
FilmOn X founder Alki David may have been upset after two courts issued unfavorable rulings in suits brought against him by broadcasters — but he is irate over an erroneous report that he reached a $10 million settlement with CBS in a contempt-of-court case that made it into court files and remained there several days.
The possibility is growing that the Supreme Court will eventually be asked to settle broadcasters’ legal battle with Aereo and FilmOn X. As both broadcasters and the companies await a key decision due from a San Francisco appellate court, broadcasters are stepping up the pressure on the two services.
Online video company FilmOn X is asking U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer to reconsider her order prohibiting the company from streaming TV shows in all but three states.
The owners of FilmOn X vowed that their company would someday become an “Aereo killer,” and it may end up doing just that — only not in the way they intended. Last week, Rosemary Collyer, a federal district judge in Washington D.C., ordered FilmOn to stop operating in the United States after concluding that the company violated the copyrights of TV broadcasters. The decision is also a serious blow to Aereo’s legal position, say legal experts.
In what could be a death-knell to Aereo-like services that retransmit local TV programming over the Internet without paying broadcasters, a Washington, D.C., judge on Thursday issued an injunction to stop FilmOn X. Siding with local broadcasters, District Court Judge Rosemary M. Collyer ruled FilmOn X’s service violates copyright laws.
FilmOn X LLC, founded by Alki David, told judges at a hearing Tuesday that it isn’t infringing copyrights by capturing broadcasters’ over-the-air signals with its small remotely located antennas and retransmitting the programming to its customers. “The rulings of the district court in these cases should be reversed,” Ryan Baker, a lawyer for FilmOn X, told the judges.
Broadcasters including Fox, NBC and ABC have offered additional justifications for a nationwide injunction to stop Aereo-like FilmOnX. In a filing late Friday in Federal District Court, the broadcasters charged that FilmOnX — which has changed its name from Aereokiller — is “a broadcast retransmission service, not a technology provider.”
Online video company FilmOn X is arguing that it should be allowed to continue operating while a lawsuit against the company is pending in federal court in Washington. The startup is asking U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer to reject a request by TV broadcasters to prohibit the service from operating.
