Monthly Archives: April 2011

A gift from Zediva

April 6, 2011
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Copyright If online “DVD rental” outfit Zediva didn’t exist, incoming MPAA chairman and CEO Chris Dodd might have wanted to invent it. Having taken on a nearly impossible job riding herd over a membership that has trouble agreeing on where to order lunch during board meetings, Zediva has handed him, for his first major project, a nearly gift-wrapped opportunity to rally his members around a righteous and beloved cause: suing the bejeesus out of start-up for copyright infringement.

All six of the major studios that make up the membership of MPAA are named plaintiffs in the complaint against Zediva and its CEO, Venkatesh Srinivasan, filed Monday in federal district court in California. The MPAA then put out a press release trumpeting the lawsuit, which no doubt felt good. Read more »

Cable apps and the FCC (Updated)

April 4, 2011
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AllVid One potentially interesting wrinkle to the controversy over cable MSOs launching iPad streaming apps that hasn’t received much attention yet: the possibility that the FCC could have a say in the eventual outcome were the agency to go ahead with its proposed AllVid mandate.

So far, Time Warner Cable’s iPad app seems to be drawing most of the ire of the networks. The MSO was forced to drop 11 channels from its app belonging to Viacom, News Corp., Scripps and Discovery Communications after the networks threatened it with litigation. Cablevision’s iPad app, on the other hand, launched after TWC’s, has thus far escaped the cease-and-desist letters, at least as far as has been reported. Read more »