Zediva Shutters Rental Service

12 Aug, 2011 By: Chris Tribbey

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Online DVD rental service Zediva shuttered its operations late Aug. 11, complying with a federal court ruling that suggested the company was violating copyrights.

Zediva, which rented out new-release titles on street date, streaming the content to consumers via Web-connected DVD players, said it would appeal the Aug. 1 ruling.

“It seemed to us logical and evolutionary that if a customer was able to rent and play a DVD in his home, there should be no reason why he or she could not do that from the Internet cloud,” the company said in an email to consumers. “After all, you can do that with a DVR, so why not with a DVD player?

“Well, it turns out to have been a little more complicated than that. We are suspending Zediva's operations to comply with an order by the United States District Court for the Central District of California.”

The Motion Picture Association of America sued to shut the service down in April, alleging Zediva’s business model amounted to illegal public distribution of copyrighted content.

The judge in the case ruled that Zediva’s business model wasn’t on a legal playing field with the likes of other subscription video-on-demand services, such as Netflix or Hulu Plus, which pay content owners for the rights to stream content.

Dan Robbins, SVP and associate general counsel for the MPAA, called the Aug. 1 ruling “a great victory for the more than 2 million American men and women whose livelihoods depend on a thriving film and television industry.”

Zediva said it would be in contact with subscribers who still had rental credits, asking for “patience as we figure out our next steps.”

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