Preliminary Injunction Granted In MPAA's Suit Against Zediva

The MPAA’s lawsuit against streaming-video site Zediva picked up steam today when a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction against the site’s operators. The movie studio trade group sued WTV Systems, the parent company of Zediva, and Venkatesh Srinivasan, Zediva’s founder and CEO, back in April and filed a motion for the preliminary injunction May 26. The lawsuit alleges that Zediva violated the studios’ exclusive right to publicly perform their movies under copyright law, acting as an unauthorized video-on-demand service; the site says it was a rental service and not obligated to pay licensing fees. “Movie fans today have more on-demand options than ever for watching films at home, from iTunes to Netflix to Amazon to Vudu to Hulu to the VOD offerings from cable and satellite operators,” said Dan Robbins, SVP and associate general counsel for the MPAA, in a release announcing the court’s ruling. “All these legitimate companies have obtained licenses from the copyright owners. The court found Zediva’s service threatened the development of these lawful VOD and Internet-based services.”