Surprise: FilmOn Wins Court Battles That Aereo Had Failed In a potentially major ruling for Internet video services, a Federal Judge has ruled that online television service FilmOn X LLC should be treated like a traditional cable system. U.S. District Judge George Wu in Los Angeles ruled that FilmOn X is entitled to a compulsory license under the Copyright Act to retransmit the broadcasters' programs if it meets the law's requirements.

The ruling could force broadcasters like CBS, Fox, NBC and to license their programming to Internet companies at discounted rates, opening up the Internet video landscape dramatically. "The broadcasters have been trying to keep their foot on the throat of innovation," FilmOn X's lawyer Ryan Baker told Reuters in an interview. "The court's decision today is a win for technology and for the American public." In a statement of its own, Fox declared the ruling "contravenes all legal precedent" and promised to appeal. The ruling comes less than a year after the Supreme Court ruled that Aereo violated copyright, forcing the operation to shut down. The ruling's a notable surprise given that while Aereo carefully crafted its service to dance around the law (and died), FilmOn simply bull-rushed the market (and, for now, appears to be winning). The full ruling can be found The full ruling can be found here (pdf).







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pandora

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join:2001-06-01

Outland 5 recommendations pandora Premium Member Lets hope this ruling survives appeal Let's hope this ruling survives appeal. It seems all innovation is resisted by content controllers, but eventually, once they are dragged into new technology an additional revenue stream is born. psiu

join:2004-01-20

Farmington, MI 2 recommendations psiu Member This feels like having my parents and grandparents pick electronic gifts Plaid socks would be a more useful result.



Yeah, the Aereo situation was priceless, and depressing.



Aereo: we followed the laws as written, built our technology around them, boo yah!

Most of the lower judges: sounds pretty reasonable.

Stray lower judge: harumph

SCOTUS: eeeehhhhhhh when's Bingo at the hall? On TV? Must be a cable company!

Aereo: okaaaay. So, FCC, the SC just said we were a cable company.

FCC: neeener neeener, nah nah nah, gooooodbye



RIP Schrodinger's Duckeo