Movie Studios Sue Zediva for Copyright Infringement

Zediva does not have name recognition among the general public yet, but it certainly has plans to enter every American household.  Movie studios will do everything in their power to prevent that from happening.  On April 4, 2011, multiple movie studios filed a complaint for copyright infringement in the United States District Court Central District of California Western Division seeking relief based on the studios’ damages and Zediva’s profits in addition to maximum statutory damages of $150,000 per statutory award.  Further, the studios was preliminary and permanent injunctions to deny continued infringement by Zediva.

Zediva is a commercial video-on-demand service that streams movies to consumers, for a fee, through its website.  The service (located at Zediva.com) first launched to the public on March 16, 2011.  Movie studios are upset because Zediva does not first receive permission from the studios prior to offering the movies online for streaming.  Because it is a “movie rental service,” Zediva claims that it does not have to obtain a license from the studios or compensate them for streaming the movies.  This argument is likely to fail, as the service will probably be found to be closer to Netflix than a traditional retail DVD rental store.  For what it is worth, Zediva has retained a prominent intellectual property law firm (Durie Tangri) to fight off the movie studios.