The founder of Locast, a non-profit determined by a federal judge to have improperly distributed broadcast TV network signals, has agreed to pay $32 million to settle a lawsuit.
The settlement (read it here) is a straightforward capstone of the case. In addition to the financial penalty, it enjoins defendant David Goodfriend from participating in any similar action that could be viewed as a copyright threat.
ViacomCBS, Disney, NBCUniversal and Fox sued Locast in 2019. The case had distinct echoes of the Aereo affair. Backed by Barry Diller, Aereo defended its digital alternative to pay-tv all the way to the Supreme Court before being torpedoed by an unfavorable ruling.
Goodfriend, a veteran attorney, founded the non-profit parent of Locast in early 2018. He was familiar with the legal and business workings of pay-tv and streaming, having worked in the Clinton Administration, at the FCC and Dish Network, among other places. Locast, he always maintained,...
The settlement (read it here) is a straightforward capstone of the case. In addition to the financial penalty, it enjoins defendant David Goodfriend from participating in any similar action that could be viewed as a copyright threat.
ViacomCBS, Disney, NBCUniversal and Fox sued Locast in 2019. The case had distinct echoes of the Aereo affair. Backed by Barry Diller, Aereo defended its digital alternative to pay-tv all the way to the Supreme Court before being torpedoed by an unfavorable ruling.
Goodfriend, a veteran attorney, founded the non-profit parent of Locast in early 2018. He was familiar with the legal and business workings of pay-tv and streaming, having worked in the Clinton Administration, at the FCC and Dish Network, among other places. Locast, he always maintained,...
- 10/28/2021
- by Dade Hayes
- Deadline Film + TV
The four major U.S. broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox — have emerged victorious in a lawsuit against Locast, a nonprofit that enables — or they say, basically steals — local TV streams.
Plaintiffs — the stations — asked a judge to throw out Locast’s claim that its online service is legally exempt from copyright infringement liability because it only seeks donations, not fees, from users, and only enough to keep its business running. Locast wanted a finding that it is exempt.
“Plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment is granted . Defendants’ motion for summary judgment is denied,” wrote Judge Louis Stanton of the Southern District of New York in a ruling today.
Locast users pay it a minimum $5 monthly fee in exchange for month-long , uninterrupted service which the judge refused to categorize as “merely a recurring gift to a charitable cause.” Locast “still solicits, and receives, substantial amounts in charges from recipients for its uninterrupted service.
Plaintiffs — the stations — asked a judge to throw out Locast’s claim that its online service is legally exempt from copyright infringement liability because it only seeks donations, not fees, from users, and only enough to keep its business running. Locast wanted a finding that it is exempt.
“Plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment is granted . Defendants’ motion for summary judgment is denied,” wrote Judge Louis Stanton of the Southern District of New York in a ruling today.
Locast users pay it a minimum $5 monthly fee in exchange for month-long , uninterrupted service which the judge refused to categorize as “merely a recurring gift to a charitable cause.” Locast “still solicits, and receives, substantial amounts in charges from recipients for its uninterrupted service.
- 8/31/2021
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
David Goodfriend, founder of controversial not-for-profit outfit Locast, said the parent companies of ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox “waited too long” to sue him over the alleged theft of their signals.
He also questioned why they didn’t seek a temporary restraining order to halt the two-year-old company’s operations, as they did in the case of Aereo, a similar case that arose years earlier. “I think the reason they didn’t seek that Tro,” Goodfriend said, “is that they realized full well that they had waited too long and would have lost. It’s hard to show irreparable harm when you’ve done nothing for a year and a half.”
The executive delivered the comments Wednesday at the TV of Tomorrow Show in New York, a one-day industry conference.
Locast began operating in January 2018. Absent a Tro, the company has been able to launch its service in Atlanta, Phoenix and Seattle,...
He also questioned why they didn’t seek a temporary restraining order to halt the two-year-old company’s operations, as they did in the case of Aereo, a similar case that arose years earlier. “I think the reason they didn’t seek that Tro,” Goodfriend said, “is that they realized full well that they had waited too long and would have lost. It’s hard to show irreparable harm when you’ve done nothing for a year and a half.”
The executive delivered the comments Wednesday at the TV of Tomorrow Show in New York, a one-day industry conference.
Locast began operating in January 2018. Absent a Tro, the company has been able to launch its service in Atlanta, Phoenix and Seattle,...
- 12/4/2019
- by Dade Hayes
- Deadline Film + TV
Locast, the service launched in 2018 that enables viewers to access free internet streams of local TV stations’ signals, has filed a counter-suit against ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, alleging “classic copyright abuse.”
The two sides have clashed over the service, which bills itself as a “signal booster” fully compliant with copyright laws. Broadcasters maintain it is a phony not-for-profit supported by satellite operators looking for a work-around in the increasingly pitched battles over retransmission consent. Even though broadcast signals are beamed free over the air, under laws revised in the 1990s, pay-tv operators are forced to negotiate retransmission consent, paying fees for broadcasters’ programs.
Seeing a clear threat to those fees, which have grown manifold over the years, the networks filed suit in July, seeking to shut down Locast. David Goodfriend, a former media executive and lawyer who has worked at the FCC, founded Locast and is named in the broadcast networks’ complaint.
The two sides have clashed over the service, which bills itself as a “signal booster” fully compliant with copyright laws. Broadcasters maintain it is a phony not-for-profit supported by satellite operators looking for a work-around in the increasingly pitched battles over retransmission consent. Even though broadcast signals are beamed free over the air, under laws revised in the 1990s, pay-tv operators are forced to negotiate retransmission consent, paying fees for broadcasters’ programs.
Seeing a clear threat to those fees, which have grown manifold over the years, the networks filed suit in July, seeking to shut down Locast. David Goodfriend, a former media executive and lawyer who has worked at the FCC, founded Locast and is named in the broadcast networks’ complaint.
- 9/27/2019
- by Dade Hayes
- Deadline Film + TV
The four major broadcast networks, CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday to shut down Locast, a free streaming app that provides broadcast TV signals.
The broadcasters argue that Locast, by retransmitting the signals of their local TV stations without permission, is in violation of copyright law. “Locast is simply Aereo 2.0, a business built on illegally using broadcaster content,” the broadcasters said in the lawsuit, which was filed in New York. “While it pretends to be a public service without any commercial purpose, Locast’s marketing and deep connections to AT&T and Dish make clear that it exists to serve its pay-tv patrons.”
Locast did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment on the lawsuit.
Also Read: Disney and 'Home Improvement' Creators Settle Profit-Sharing Lawsuit
The Wall Street Journal was first to report about the lawsuit on Wednesday morning.
Locast launched in early 2018 and was founded by David Goodfriend,...
The broadcasters argue that Locast, by retransmitting the signals of their local TV stations without permission, is in violation of copyright law. “Locast is simply Aereo 2.0, a business built on illegally using broadcaster content,” the broadcasters said in the lawsuit, which was filed in New York. “While it pretends to be a public service without any commercial purpose, Locast’s marketing and deep connections to AT&T and Dish make clear that it exists to serve its pay-tv patrons.”
Locast did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment on the lawsuit.
Also Read: Disney and 'Home Improvement' Creators Settle Profit-Sharing Lawsuit
The Wall Street Journal was first to report about the lawsuit on Wednesday morning.
Locast launched in early 2018 and was founded by David Goodfriend,...
- 7/31/2019
- by Tim Baysinger
- The Wrap
On Tuesday's The Dylan Ratigan Show, guest host Ari Melber spoke to Democratic strategist David Goodfriend. Riding on the popularity tide of The Hunger Games movie, Goodfriend drew parallels between the movie and America's income inequality today. He further compared the movie to the current health care fight in the Supreme Court, recommending Republicans (and viewers) to go see it and "reflect on what kind of America you want to live in."...
- 3/27/2012
- by Meenal Vamburkar
- Mediaite - TV
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