Starz Sues Disney Over Exclusivity
Starz has filed suit against Buena Vista Entertainment, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney, Co. for breach of contract. Starz, which bills itself as “one of the largest content aggregators in Hollywood,” alleges that Disney’s practice of selling movies through digital channels such as the iTunes Store and Wal-Mart.com infringes on the exclusivity clause of a Starz-BVT licensing agreement which dates back to 1993.
Starz CEO Robert B. Clasen claims it’s a critical copyright issue, as quoted in the release:
It is especially disappointing to see one of the largest studios ignore so blatantly its own contractual obligations to protect the copyrights it has licensed to Starz.
Under the agreement, the suit contends, Disney is prohibited from selling content over the Internet that is exclusively licensed for distribution with Starz. Further, these exclusivity rights have cost Starz over a $1 billion. Starz is asking for an injunction and all profits Buena Vista has made from infringing sales to date. Starz distributes films primarily through a lineup of 16 pay cable channels, via cable on-demand and through Vongo, its subscription-based movie download service.
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I kinda agree on this… I mean, if you can watch The Kid anytime you want through iTunes, why would I tune into Starz even if they do show it 300 times per month.
It’s a good movie and all, but I feel much safer watching my guilty pleasures one-handed at the keyboard than in the living room on the couch.
The Starz online exclusivity deal is the one reason that you dont see any decent movie subscrption services online . This deal is said to
be in place until 2012 so dont expect to see any innovation in this space until then.
This is going to be fun to watch and see how the rules of engagement change, who gets divorced and who gets married. Who knows we could even see some legal action in the podcasting world soon.
Cool.