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Provo-based movie-filtering company VidAngel has not taken down titles referenced by a federal judge in a preliminary injunction last week, and it is asking that it be given until the end of January to comply with the court order.
In a filing Wednesday, VidAngel CEO Neal Harmon acknowledged that the company had not taken down movies and shows owned by Disney Enterprises, Inc., Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. — though it was ordered to do so — and that the company had added additional titles owned by the studios to its queue.
The four Hollywood studios are plaintiffs in a lawsuit originally filed against the filtering company in central California's U.S. District Court, saying VidAngel did not have permission to use and alter their products. VidAngel filed a counterclaim, stating that its actions and business plan are legal under the federal Family Movie Act.
The move to add new titles despite the injunction "was not intended to be disrespectful," Harmon said, adding that "VidAngel will not add any other titles owned or licensed by plaintiffs unless and until it obtains a stay of the preliminary injunction."
The company had not complied with the preliminary injunction, he said, because he could not find a way to do so "without going out of business completely and without causing unintended problems for our customers."
The app marketplaces used by Vidangel — such as Roku and Apple — prohibit modifications to apps during the holiday season, Harmon said, and attempting to remove titles during "the blackout period" would be futile because "the system could not be modified to recognize titles that were no longer available for sale."
Even if there were no blackout period, "it is not an easy process to modify in-app purchasing," Harmon said, adding that the company "cannot turn off in-app purchases altogether because doing so would prevent us from selling and-or renting other content."
Though 125 studios or distributors control rights to VidAngel content, 56 percent of VidAngel discs are owned or licensed by the four plaintiffs, the declaration says.
Harmon also expressed concerns over customer confusion. "There is no practical way to notify our customers of what we are doing," he said.
Although VidAngel has email addresses for its customers, messages from the company are "typically opened only about 20 percent of the time," and sending out information through email rather than the app could create "enormous consumer ill will."
He added that the company's team of 14 people would be "ill-equipped to handle the influx of customer service requests if it is not afforded that opportunity." Since the injunction last week, the number of requests has doubled from about 3,500 per week to 7,000, Harmon said.
Despite the obstacles, the CEO says "it is, and always has been, VidAngel's intent to comply fully" with court orders. He asked that the company "be allowed reasonable time to comply ... if no stay is granted."
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