OT: Zediva

filmy wrote on 12/26/2011, 9:59 AM
Copyright related:

For those who don't know this was a brand new company of like NetFlix and combined with the brick and mortar concept of video rentals.

In Zediva's words "Zediva purchases DVDs sold by the Studios and rents them to the public. Like Blockbuster and Netflix, it rents those videos to one person at a time, for private enjoyment in their own home. It does so not by requiring the customer to come to a physical store, but by bringing the store to the customer via the Internet. Zediva gives its customers control over an actual DVD player containing an actual, purchased disc—not in their living room, but online. During the period of that rental, the customer controls the DVD player, and only that customer can view the disc. Only after the customer returns the disc can Zediva rent it out to someone else."

Seems legal and logical (At least in the U.S). After all vdieo rentals are legal, NetFlix is legal, PPV is legal, timeshifting is legal, DVR's are legal, even RedBox is legal.

So as Zediva "permited only private transmissions, not public ones, and those transmissions are made as a direct result of the user’s volitional conduct, not Zediva’s" they fall right in line with everyone else.

As with most every case before it the big studios banded together and claim copyright violations - in this case the big one being calimed is that they (studios) are the only ones who control the ability "to perform the copyrighted work publicly" and nobody else can give that permission. They failed when they tried to stop the VCR, they failed when they tried to stop the DVR, they failed when they tried to stop video rentals overall, they failed when they tried to stop PPV, they failed when some tried to stop kiosk rentals such as RedBox and even Clear Play was found to be legal.

But Zediva lost.

Zediva
"We are suspending Zediva's operations to comply with an order by the United States District Court for the Central District of California."

Virtual DVD Rental Service Zediva Shut Down Permanently
The MPAA cheers result as sending a strong message to would-be copyright infringers.
Zediva is nuked, Hollywood rejoices

Comments

Radio Guy wrote on 12/26/2011, 12:29 PM
This is just another step in the control mentality. Another blow to Freedom
Laurence wrote on 12/26/2011, 12:43 PM
Thanks for posting this. Really interesting idea. It is a shame that the are running into legal problems like this.
johnmeyer wrote on 12/26/2011, 7:25 PM
This sounds like an idea I briefly tried to develop about a dozen years ago. The concept was to purchase an existing movie theater (they were closing left and right back then) and install a digital projector (something rather new back then). Then, anyone could bring their DVD which they had rented or owned outright, and display it for both themselves and their friends. The idea was to provide the ultimate home theater experience for people who didn't own $100,000 worth of home theater equipment.

We killed the idea after a month of trying to figure out a way to avoid what seemed like the inevitable performance rights issues. It seems that even now, twelve years later, there still isn't a way to handle this in a way that satisfies all parties.