New York – A federal court has issued a preliminary

injunction against ivi, a service that streams live TV broadcasts, stating that

the TV networks that sued the company for copyright infringement are suffering

harm and likely to prevail on the merits of their case, Wired.com reports. Seattle-based

ivi was launched in September 2010, and charges users $5 per month for access

to live Internet simulcasts of signals from 55 TV stations.

After receiving

cease-and-desist letters from the networks soon after its launch, ivi filed a pre-emptive lawsuit

against them — asking the courts to declare its service legal.

The company

argued its service is akin to a cable system under the law, operating legally

so long as it makes payments to the U.S. Copyright Office for compulsory

licenses offered to cable providers.

It has also argued that it need not seek

consent from the networks to retransmit their signals, because the Federal

Communications Commission (FCC) has no authority over the Internet.

Days after

ivi filed its pre-emptive suit, the networks filed copyright infringement

claims against the company, and a judge has now ruled that, "ivi’s

architecture bears no resemblance to the cable systems of the 1970s,"

noting the service "retransmits broadcast signals nationwide, rather than

to specific local areas."

For its part, ivi plans to appeal the decision.

"The judge has it wrong," ivi founder and CEO Todd Weaver told Wired.

"She is supposed to rule on copyright. And she is granting a preliminary

injunction in a copyright case to make communications policy, which is

something that the FCC needs to do."

Related Links:

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/02/ivi-injunction

http://tinyurl.com/48lj5nk

(DMW previous coverage)

http://tinyurl.com/25x9hdj

(DMW previous coverage)

http://www.ivi.tv