Studio injunction request against MovieTube withdrawn in lawsuit

After several tech companies weighed in on a lawsuit between the Motion Picture Association of America and MovieTube, the studio conglomerate has decided to waive its request for a broad preliminary injunction against the website. Had it been enacted, the injunction would have also required third party service providers to stop providing any services to MovieTube. This would include preventing the site from coming up on search engines, or popping on Facebook feeds.

This demand caused a huge stir with tech giants Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, who argued that the MPAA was using the case to try and bring back the now dead Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) by forcing third parties to alter their own businesses.

While the tech-sector's complaint was quickly followed by the injunction request being dropped, the MPAA claims that their decision was more a result of MovieTube already being essentially dead as a website. 

While it was still active, MovieTube leaked several high-profile motion pictures, like Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron, before they were released in theaters, which the MPAA argues caused significant damage to their films. The studios are still pursuing an injunction and relief from the owners of MovieTube, but for the time being, it looks like their request for a third party injunction is being pulled. 

The MPAA's attorney, in an effort to maintain a stance in favor of third parties being forced to comply with demands to crush piracy, wrote to the court that the group's arguments are "not ripe for consideration and are otherwise inapplicable." She added that, "to the extent Amici (the tech conglomerate) are requesting what amounts to an advisory opinion, such a request is improper and should not be entertained."

Ultimately, the case boils down to another discussion of online piracy, and the best, and more ethical ways to shut it down. Variety likened the process of fighting piracy to Hercules' struggle with the Hydra: the more sites that are struck down, the more heads severed from the beast's body, the more that crop up elsewhere.

For the time being, the question of whether social media sites, web-hosts and search engines have a legal or ethical obligation to alter their own businesses to fight piracy has been yet again successfully dodged, but the MPAA's last letter the court makes it clear that it'll come up against at some point in the near future.

No matter where you are with your company, it's important to contact a skilled business attorney as soon as possible. A lawyer can help protect your rights in case of litigation, and get you just compensation.

Categorised in: Entertainment Law

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