On the deadline day set by a federal judge last week to explain why she shouldn’t hold FilmOn X in contempt of court for violating a nearly nationwide ban, the Alki David’s TV streaming company said it was just a mistake that it had streamed programming from Fox, ABC and NBC in the Boston area. “At worst, FilmOn X’s testing of its software inadvertently allowed a limit number of users in the First Circuit to access copyrighted programming for a brief period of time after the Hearst decision. Upon discovering that this error had occurred, FilmOn X immediately and voluntarily took corrective action before Plaintiffs brought this issue to this Court’s attention,” said the 15-page response filing.
DC-based Judge Rosemary Collyer’s order on 9/5 to pull the plug everywhere but New York, Connecticut and Vermont—states covered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. “The Court’s decision conflicts with the law of the Second Circuit under Aereo II,” said Collyer in her first ruling, agreeing to extend the injunction to everywhere except the 2nd Circuit.
On 9/12, Collyer also rejected FilmOn X’s motion to keep operating or lessen its order to cease functioning almost everywhere in the US. It instead affirmed its preliminary injunction against the Aereo-like service.
In the filing, FilmOn X also questioned Collyer’s interpretation of her injunction order: “[Her order] may reasonably be interpreted as not barring FilmOn X from operating in the First Circuit where a district court has ruled that a substantially identical service operated by Aereo, Inc. does not enable public performances; rather the performances are private,” noted a Deadline.com story.
Fox, NBCU, Disney/ABC, Allbritton and Telemundo also filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against FilmOn X TV digital distribution services in DC federal court in May.
Meanwhile, FilmOn X is launching in Philadelphia soon, outside of Collyer’s jurisdiction.
See the Deadline.com story here, which includes a copy of the full filing.
RBR-TVBR observation: Even more fuel to the fire that will send all of this to the Supreme Court for a final decision on all of these illegal streaming services. Since FilmOn X is very similar to Aereo and Aereo has been allowed to operate in areas she has forbidden FimOn X, it means yet another conflicting ruling by different courts.
