On the news that a Massachusetts U.S. District Court judge has decided not to block Aereo from delivering a Boston TV station online while the court considers the underlying broadcaster challenge to the service, FilmOn has said it will "defy" a court injunction and start delivering local TV stations in Boston to its users.
FilmOn founder Alki David congratulated his "archrival" service and said that despite an injunction imposed by Washington, D.C. judge Rosemary Collyer, "Naturally this now allows FilmOn to fire up our Local Service," David told B&C/Multi, despite the injunction.
On Sept. 5, a D.C. District Court Thursday granted a preliminary injunction against FilmOn. The injunction does not apply to states in the Second Circuit — New York, Connecticut and Vermont — which declined to enjoin a similar service, Aereo.
The injunction was sought by the Big Four broadcast networks, Gannett and Allbritton, who sued FilmOn for copyright infringement.
FilmOn is enjoined from "streaming, transmitting, retransmitting, or otherwise publicly performing, displaying, or distributing any Copyrighted Programming over the Internet."
Both FilmOn and Aereo deliver TV station signals online from remote antennas. Broadcasters say that is a public transmission that is subject to copyright payments not being made. Aereo and FilmOn say they are giving their users private access, via remote antennas, to the free over-the-air TV signals they are entitled to.
