Six major Hollywood studios, including Warner Brothers and Sony Pictures, have sued Internet movie company Zediva and its Indian-American CEO Venkatesh Srinivasan for streaming movies online for as little as $1 without permission from them. The lawsuit filed for copyright infringement in a Los Angeles court alleges that Zediva “illegally” streams movies to its customers in violation of the studios’ right to “publicly perform” their works, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) announced on behalf of its members.
The studios’ complaint alleges a single count of copyright infringement against California-based Zediva’s parent company WTV Systems and IIT Mumbai alumnus Srinivasan.
“When legitimate companies stream movies to their customers, they pay licence fees to the copyright owners, enabling content providers to invest in new products and services that pay writers, set builders and wardrobe designers who contribute to a movie production.
“Companies like Zediva profit off creators without paying them what is required by the law,” MPAA senior vice-president and associate general counsel Dan Robbins said in a statement. Zediva claims it is like a “brick-and-mortar DVD rental” store and therefore not obligated to pay licensing fees to copyright holders, the MPAA added. “But the DVD rental label is a sham. In reality, Zediva is a video-on-demand service,” Robbins said.