Utah-based streaming service VidAngel, which filters out “offensive” content for faith-and-family audiences, has come to a settlement and will fork over $9.9 million to the studios to end its four-year legal battle over copyright infringement.
The company launched in 2015 and allowed viewers to watch major Hollywood releases while skipping past sex, violence, foul language or other objectionable material. The problem is the service did not have a license from the content owners, rather it ripped copies of DVD releases and made them available to customers for a rental fee as low as $1.
The studios filed suit in 2016, as VidAngel was pirating content and engaged in unlawful competition to authorized streaming services. VidAngel countered that its conduct was permitted under the 2005 Family Movie Act.
A year ago the company appeared to be headed for the slaughterhouse when a Los Angeles jury ordered it to pay $62.4 million to Disney, Lucasfilm, Warner Bros. and Fox for infringing on hundreds of titles. The service now adopts a model focused on filtering content on Netflix and Amazon Prime, with that version not facing any legal challenges at present.
As part of the settlement the company will drop its appeal of the L.A. jury’s verdict and has agreed not to stream any of the studios’ content. VidAngel can pay off the award early for a reduced sum – $7.8 million – if it abides by the terms of the agreement for three years.
Source: Variety