VidAngel: Is This the End?

The movie streaming service that has become the obsession of many families since 2014 is going through a rough patch. VidAngel, a movie service that allows you to technically buy movies for $1 and add filters to take out specific content that may not be seen as "family friendly", is facing law suits from 4 large movie companies and has a court case for the end of October to decide the companies fate.

Disney, 20th Century Fox, Lucasfilm, and Warner Bros have all filed suit against VidAngel for unlicensed video streaming. Companies like Hulu and Netflix specifically buy movies and television shows for millions of dollars to stream on demand for customers, and these large companies argue that VidAngel streams similarly and has not paid this money.

VidAngel has filed for a counterclaim against this, initally to take place October 24 but has been pushed back to October 31 as the court hearing, and claims that it is protected under the Family Home Movie Act of 2005. This act allows the creation of technology that can filter content out of movies and television shows. It was created after a similar law suit was filed against the company ClearPlay, who would edit movies content and sell hardcopies to customers. The act allows creation of filters to be used on films, but does not allow a new version of the film to be made.

Some of the filters available through the VidAngel service. You can use them all or just a few, but it is all legal as it is in the privacy of your own home that you view them.

VidAngel has multiple pages on their site, specifically in their About and Lawsuit sections, further explaining how what they do is completely legal based off the laws that Congress has made. On the Lawsuit page it says:

"So, the Family Movie Act said filtering companies don’t need Hollywood’s permission. They just need to meet 3 requirements:

1. The movie is an authorized copy

2. Watched in the privacy of the home, and…

3. No permanent filtered copy is created"

VidAngel asks that those who want it to remain a company sign a petition found on SaveFiltering.com and continue to buy movies using its service. The company argues that Disney also wanted to shut down the company RedBox since they sold movies for so cheap as well, and they are still in business!

So everything is riding on the verdict to be delivered. Fingers crossed.

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Want to learn more about this lawsuit? Click here, here, or here.

#disney #warnerbros #movies #vidangel