Fox filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in LA on 8/10 claiming that Barrydriller.com violates its copyrights and trademarks by streaming its KTTV-DT LA signal without permission. The suit seeks injunctive relief and unspecified damages. Now, other three big broadcast networks have filed a joint copyright infringement claim against Alki David, FilmOn CEO’s Barrydriller.com, an online video service in competition with Aereo. Of course, Aereo is Barry Diller’s service currently running in NYC that streams broadcast TV networks’ signal (received over small, remote antennas) over the web to paying subscribers.
The new suit from the networks is similar to the suit that Fox filed on Friday — also at the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. The action against BarryDriller.com was made “to restrain defendants from exploiting without authorization, and violating plaintiffs’ rights in, some of the most valuable intellectual property created in the United States,” reported Deadline.com.
They want unspecified damages as well as an injunction against BarryDriller.com, which beginning last week streamed the broadcasters’ over-the-air signals to subscribers in a few cities including Los Angeles and New York.
The lawyer for Aereokiller LLC–the Alki David company behind BarryDriller.com–wrote a letter to NBC’s lawyer saying that the streaming site will suspend carriage of KNBC “pending an orderly resolution of the legal issues.” He maintains, though, that David and his partners “intend to proceed with their service” and “reserve their right to restore full functionality to subscribers.” He adds that the defendants “are confident that the service is legal,” said Deadline.com.
With Barrydriller.com, David claims to be following in the footsteps of Aereo, which is using a different technological approach and appears to be on sounder legal ground.
David also says he is willing to pay the networks for their content, unlike Aereo, although he hasn’t paid them yet. The site is currently charging $5.95 a month to watch several local New York channels, or $59.95 a year. David claims Barrydriller.com has more than 28,000 paying subscribers.
See the Deadline.com story here
