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.
{"source":"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2007\/03\/22\/starz-sues-disney-over-exclusivity\/wijax\/49e8740702c6da9341d50357217fb629","varname":"wijax_57ec820e68e34a5201b4b988bc39b39f","title_element":"header","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Cheader%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fheader%3E"}