The news has been released through Variety and The Hollywood Reporter that Fox Broadcasting has filed a lawsuit against Alki David and his site, BarryDriller.com. According to the official lawsuit documents, Fox is claiming that David has “launched an unauthorized Internet streaming service in violation of the Plaintiff’s rights under the Copyright and Lanham Acts.” However, David has roared back, saying that Fox “has no idea what [they] have just done.”
“Barry Driller is geoblocked in four major markets New York, LA, Chicago and Minneapolis. Opening up in San Francisco and Dallas within the next two weeks,” wrote David. “Then on to Boston with another prime TV Channel… followed by Chicago and New York. By the end of the year I expect we will also be on Dish and DirecTV. This will be brand new interactive pop culture TV with a special twist.”
David’s argument for the networks to allow him to use their content on BarryDriller.com is that he is offering their services to the people.
“The networks should be loving us, not hating us,” he wrote. “Whether they like it or not. Free TV is meant to be free… BarryDriller/FilmOn is constitutionally entitled to distribute the Free to Air channels. We are the ones that should be taking it to the Networks not Aereo. Our argument is this:
Little antennas are nonsense. The whole Aereo argument is ridiculous. It is pathetic that we should stoop to loopholes and inefficient technology to get broadcast TV online. Television is for the people. What really benefits the consumer? Access… when we want it and how we want it.”
He goes on to write that BarryDriller.com wants to pay the networks, not steal their programming. “We never got our day in court to demonstrate why we should fall under section 111 of the copyright act,” wrote David. “FilmOn has cables and their number are growing. We have subscribers…. they are definitely growing. That is what a cable system. Cables and subscribers.”
In an ironic twist, Barry Diller, the man behind internet streaming service Aereo and the inspiration behind the name BarryDriller.com, is the former Chief Executive Officer of Fox, Inc, the parent company of Fox Broadcasting and 20th Century Fox. Diller retired from his post in 1992.
Stay posted to ShockYa for more on the developments.
