Posted Wed Nov 2, 2011 at 07:00 AM PDT by Dick Ward
DVD streaming was a bit of a gamble, and sadly for Zediva, it didn't pay off.
Zediva, for those that don't remember the very short lived site, was a DVD streaming service that let you rent a movie to watch online as if you were controlling a DVD player. You could bring up different audio tracks including commentaries and there was a plan to enable special features as well.
The method behind this tech was simple - you were actually controlling a DVD player. This process was, in the estimation of the folks at Zediva, completely legal even if they didn't pay licensing fees. The studios disagreed strongly and bam - lawsuit.
Now that the court case is finally settled, it turns out Zediva was on the wrong side of the law. They've been ordered to shut down operations and shell out a whopping $1.8 million to the MPAA.
Source: Engadget
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