Ninth Circuit Reverses FilmOn X Decision [telecom]

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Ninth Circuit Reverses FilmOn X Decision

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable, March 21, 2017

Defers to Copyright Office that internet retransmissions aren't analogous to cable

In a victory for broadcasters, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has reversed a lower court decision that FilmOn X was eligible for the same compulsory license to TV programming as cable operators have.

In the decision, released Tuesday, the appeals court held that "a service that captures copyrighted works broadcast over the air, and then retransmits them to paying subscribers over the Internet without the consent of the copyright holders, is not a 'cable system' eligible for a compulsory license under the Copyright Act."

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Neal McLain