A Los Angeles jury on Monday ordered the filtering company VidAngel to pay $62.4 million in damages, three months after a federal judge ruled it had violated copyright laws.
The decision may put the company’s future in doubt, but VidAngel CEO Neal Harmon vowed to appeal. The company declared bankruptcy in 2017.
“We disagree with today’s ruling and have not lessened our resolve to save filtering for families one iota,” Harmon said in a statement. “VidAngel plans to appeal the District Court ruling, and explore options in the bankruptcy court. Our court system has checks and balances, and we are pursuing options on that front as well.”
Disney, Lucasfilm, Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox filed suit in 2016 against the company, which offers a streaming service that allows families and other users to skip objectionable content such as violence, sexuality and profanity.
At the time, customers could buy a digital streaming movie from VidAngel for $20 and sell it back to VidAngel for $19 if the movie was returned within 24 hours — an action that resulted in a $1 rental. VidAngel said the service was legal because it owned a physical copy of each movie it sold. It also said it was protected by the 2005 Family Movie Act.
But federal judge Judge Andre Birotte disagreed the 2005 law protected VidAngel, and ruled this year the company had violated the Digital…
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