VidAngel Ordered to Pay $62 Million to Hollywood for Editing Violent and Sexual Content
Shane Trejo
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A Los Angeles jury is ordering the editing company VidAngel to pay an incredible $62.4 million in damages to Hollywood studios for censoring objectionable content on its streaming service.
A federal judge ruled in March that VidAngel violated copyright laws for allowing its users to skip the violence, sexuality and profanity that is found in abundance in Hollywood productions, and the jury is making the company pay as a result.
VidAngel CEO Neal Harmon plans to appeal the ruling, and hopes to keep his company alive. They filed bankruptcy in 2017 because of the costs incurred from dealing with this legal battle with the Hollywood giants.
“We disagree with today’s ruling and have not lessened our resolve to save filtering for families one iota,” Harmon said in a statement. “VidAngel plans to appeal the District Court ruling, and explore options in the bankruptcy court. Our court system has checks and balances, and we are pursuing options on that front as well.”
Disney, Lucasfilm, Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox sued VidAngel in 2016 for providing a streaming service that allowed users to avoid the degenerate content regularly found in their productions. These monolithic corporations are apparently intent on shoving smug down the throats of consumers whether they want it or not.
VidAngel maintains that their business practices are protected under the 2005 Family Movie Act, but Judge Andre Birotte believes otherwise. She ruled earlier this year that the company was operating in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council, is crying foul at a court system that is biased against wholesome entertainment. He is enraged that “lawyers for a multi-billion dollar company were able to squash a little mom-and-pop startup like a bug.”
“I do think it’s important for them to appeal,” he added.
“Congress now needs to step up and modernize the Family Movie Act to make sure that the courts understand this type of filtering,” Winter said to Christian Headlines. “Why would they say ‘transmit’ in the original Family Movie Act if they didn’t mean transmit?
“It’s angering,” he added, “that we worked so hard to pass that law in 05. We were successful against the forces of Hollywood. And now the forces of Hollywood are preventing companies from actually abiding by that.”
The studios are gloating that the court system is protecting their corruption of young souls in what very well may be an offering to Moloch.
“The jury today found that VidAngel acted willfully, and imposed a damages award that sends a clear message to others who would attempt to profit from unlawful infringing conduct at the expense of the creative community,” they said in a joint statement.
Winter hopes that VidAngel is ultimately successful because it was providing an alternative from the soul rot offered by Hollywood companies that are infamous for allowing sexual abuse, including the victimization of children.
“We want as many companies as possible to be in this marketplace, because that means the products are going to become better,” he said.
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