MUMBAI: Federal Judge John F. Walter granted a preliminary injunction against the operators of Zediva, an unlicensed video-on-demand service that the MPAA’s member studios sued for copyright infringement in April 2011. Judge Walter rejected Zediva’s argument that it was renting movies to its users, and ruled that Zediva violated the studios’ rights to publicly perform their movies, such as through authorized video-on-demand services.

Movie fans today have more on-demand options for watching films at home, from iTunes to Netflix to Amazon to Vudu to Hulu to the VOD offerings from cable and satellite operators. All these companies have obtained licenses from the copyright owners. The court found Zediva’s service threatened the development of these lawful VOD and Internet-based services.”

Zediva is an unlicensed video-on-demand service that streams movies over the Internet from its Silicon Valley data center. The MPAA’s six member studios sued WTV Systems, the parent company of Zediva, and Zediva’s founder and CEO Venkatesh Srinivasan on 4 April and filed their motion for a preliminary injunction on 26 May.