Redbox

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deadline.com/2017/12/disney-sues-redbox-digital-movie-codes-lawsuit-bill-nye-1202218213/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=exacttarget&utm_campaign=breakingnews&utm_content=78170_12-01-2017_disney-goes-rabid-over-redbox-selli&utm_term=2959023

Disney Goes Rabid Over Redbox Selling Digital Movie Codes, Scores Bill Nye Win

Coming off a win of sorts against Bill Nye the Science Guy in another lawsuit, Disney is now making a full-court press to erase Redbox’s efforts to digitally sell its movies.

“Redbox recently began illegally selling Plaintiffs’ digital movie codes to Redbox customers in blatant disregard of clear prohibitions against doing so and in violation of Plaintiffs’ copyrights,” states a five-claim complaint (read it here) made Thursday in California federal court by the studio as well as its Marvel, Lucasfilm and Buena Vista units.

Seeking injunctions and various damages starting at $150,000 per statutory award, the Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP-represented Disney cites a slew of tentpole titles including Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Frozen and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales as being included in the unbundlable “Combo Packs” that Redbox offers customers.

“Plaintiffs have lost and will continue to lose sales as a direct result of Redbox’s unlawful, unfair, and fraudulent conduct,” Disney says in the jury trial-seeking suit alleging copyright infringement and breach of contract.

Deadline first revealed in October that Redbox was selling the Disney codes.

“Their actions violate our contracts and copyrights, and we have filed this action to stop Redbox’s unauthorized conduct,” a spokesman from the Bob Iger-run company said Friday. This of course comes as Disney ramp up plans to get its own streaming service going in the next year with Star Wars and Marvel pics among the baubles.

“While we don’t comment on pending litigation, we feel very confident in our pro-consumer position,”said the DVD kiosk company today of Disney’s filing

This latest Disney legal move came on the same day that the House of Mouse had a roller-coaster of a hearing in the $28 million (and potentially more) fraud suit it faces from Bill Nye. In a complaint first filed in late August, the beloved Science Guy asserts that Disney, Buena Vista and more studio subsidiaries deprived him of big bucks that he should have received in profit participation from his long-running TV series.

On Thursday in a LA Superior Court gathering, Judge Dalila Lyon first issued a tentative ruling rejecting a demurrer by the studio and allowing Nye to progress with his case after few trims. That script was flipped when Disney’s Mitchell Silberberg & Knupps LLP lawyer convinced Lyon that Nye had offered little solid in his initial suit that his deal with Buena Vista was actually a pivotal joint venture. It now means Nye and his Hamrick & Evans LLP attorneys have until December 28 to amend his complaint if he wants the case to move forward.

After the downtown gathering, Buena Vista said in a statement that they were “pleased the court ruled in our favor. As we’ve said, this lawsuit is a publicity ploy, and we will continue to vigorously defend against it.”

Doesn’t take much of an equation to bet that they will.

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www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/disney-pushes-injunction-redbox-movie-download-codes-1070123

Disney Pushes for Injunction Against Redbox Over Movie Download Codes

The entertainment giant says Redbox is harming relationships with customers' perceptions of a legitimate digital market.
Disney now wants an order that prohibits Redbox from selling digital codes that allow consumers the ability to access digital copies of its movies. On Thursday, the entertainment giant filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in a move that suggests the case could be headed for a significant decision sooner rather than later.

In a lawsuit filed on November 30, Disney alleged that Redbox was disassembling "combo packs," which include a Blu-ray disc, a DVD and a code which can be redeemed through authorized digital outlets. Disney brought both contract and copyright claims because Redbox was allegedly breaching the terms and conditions of the licensing agreement and interfering with its relationships.

With a motion for a preliminary injunction (read here in full), Disney now spells out why it believes it is likely to prevail on the merits as well as its irreparable harm.

Disney runs through many of the allegations, including how the combo packs come with notice that "codes are not for sale or transfer" and explicitly states that Redbox's customers who use these codes are infringing Disney's right to copy its movies.

As for contributory liability, Disney says Redbox "encourages customers to make the infringing downloads. For example, Redbox advises customers: 'You can use your digital movie code to download and view the digital copy of your movie on a number of services. Look on the paper insert you received to find the recommended provider for that movie.' In addition, Redbox promotes its unauthorized sale of Codes as 'cheap' and a 'mart buy.'”

Perhaps most interesting is Disney's discussion of an anticipated defense by Redbox that the first sale doctrine — the one that gives those who purchase copies of copyrighted work the right to sell, display or otherwise dispose of that particular copy notwithstanding the interests of the copyright holder — provides justification.

"The defense would be inapplicable even if the claim were for violation of the distribution right (which Disney’s claim is not)," states Disney's motion. "The Code is not 'a particular copy' of a work. The Code is just that — a Code that, when redeemed in accordance with the applicable terms of service, allows an authorized user of the Code to obtain a digital download."

By offering digital codes separately from the combo packs, Disney says Redbox is interfering with the relationships and goodwill with licensed digital services, causing economic damage difficult to calculate and harming relationships with customers' perceptions of a legitimate digital market. Disney also argues that Redbox is interfering with its digital distribution strategy and causing harm to its brand.

"These harms are imminent and continuing," states the motion. "Licensed services are complaining about Redbox’s unauthorized sale of Codes; Redbox’s customers are redeeming Codes to obtain unauthorized access to digital copies of Disney’s copyrighted works; Disney and its licensees are losing sales that cannot be easily quantified; Disney’s relationships with its licensees and its customers are suffering; and Disney’s brand and ability to control distribution of its content are being affected. The impact of these harms will be extremely difficult to measure in dollar terms."

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www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/iredbox-demands-disney-lose-right-enforce-movie-copyrights-1078845

Redbox Demands Disney Lose Right to Enforce Movie Copyrights

The kiosk giant responds to Disney's lawsuit with its own — raising claims on the competition and advertising front.
Redbox is striking back at Disney after being hauled into court for unbundling movie "combo packs" and selling download codes separately. On Friday, Redbox filed its own lawsuit against Disney alleging copyright misuse, tortious interference, false advertising and unfair competition. One of Redbox's demands is that Disney no longer be able to enforce any copyright while engaging in illegal acts in the distribution market.

The fact that Redbox — which operates movie-rental kiosks in retail stores throughout the country — is bringing a new action rather than making counterclaims in the existing lawsuit will probably be challenged from the get-go. Getting past that, the lawsuit expands what's under consideration by attempting to draw attention to various ways that Disney is allegedly stifling competition to prop up various "direct to consumer" streaming services either coming or already under the Mickey Mouse giant's thumb.

The unbundled movie codes are addressed (read more on that here), but so is an alleged orchestrated campaign to prevent Redbox from purchasing enough Disney titles to meet its consumer demand.

"For example, on information and belief, Disney’s own distribution company, Defendant BVHE, has placed provisions into its contracts with retailers prohibiting them from selling copies of Disney movies to Redbox," states the complaint. "On information and belief, BVHE has also taken the extraordinary step of reducing the number of movie copies it allocates to distributors believed to sell to Redbox to prevent them from fulfilling Redbox’s orders."

And there's more.

"In addition, BVHE and Movies Anywhere have falsely stated or implied on their products, packaging, and websites, as well as to the press, that Redbox’s rental and sale of Disney titles is unlawful," continues the complaint. "Specifically, BVHE and Movies Anywhere falsely state that a purchaser may not rent or resell the individual components of the Combo Pack—including the discs—and that Redbox’s sales of the digital movies are unauthorized and violate Disney’s contracts and copyrights. On information and belief, for at least the past five years, every Combo Pack distributed by BVHE, including for Beauty and The Beast, Cars 3, and Frozen, contains the following language on the back of the jewel case: 'This product is authorized for private use only. It is prohibited for any other use and cannot be resold or rented individually. All other rights reserved. Unless expressly authorized in writing by the copyright owner, any copying, exhibition, export, distribution or other use of this product or any part of it is prohibited.'”

But Redbox says this representation is false given copyright law's first sale doctrine, which allows someone who lawfully acquires a copyrighted work to sell or dispose of their particular copy.

"Disney’s attempt to control the disposition of the Combo Pack components, even after Disney sells the DVD, Blu-ray disc, and digital movie to a Disney-authorized distributor or a retailer, is an illegal abuse of its copyrights and dominant position in the industry," continues the complaint.

In motion papers in the first lawsuit, Disney has denied attempting to stifle competition and has also argued that there's a licensing transaction that's happening — one that's conditioned upon the end-user owning both the discs and the download codes. The argument, though, was mainly put forward to explain how Redbox was committing contributory copyright infringement when consumers use download codes sold by Redbox to access movies. Now, a judge is being asked to address the transfer restrictions on the physical media in those combo packs.

Redbox alleges that Disney sees it as a threat and wants the rid the market of low prices by interfering with Redbox's relationships with retailers and misleading consumers. The plaintiff emphasizes how Disney is moving "further into the post-theatrical distribution space" and how its recent proposed acquisition of 21st Century Fox assets is indicative of these aims.

The lawsuit calls for an injunction over allegedly false statements being made plus a declaration that Disney and its subsidiaries "may not enforce any copyright in a motion picture while illegally purporting to prohibit resale or rental of copies of those works or by interfering with supply vendors’ ability to sell copies of those works to Redbox and/or other resell or rental outlets; and (ii) that the misleading statements from Defendants’ packaging and websites outlined above are unenforceable and shall not be included on Defendants’ packaging."

That's a big ask — perhaps an unprecedented one.

Redbox also seeks damages, profits and further restitution. Here's the full complaint.

www.documentcloud.org/documents/4360734-Cacd-031027433406.html

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deadline.com/2018/04/redbox-disney-legal-battle-escalates-with-amended-redbox-complaint-1202362502/

Redbox-Disney Legal Battle Escalates With Amended Redbox Complaint

The legal battle between Redbox and Disney — a case that stemmed from download codes to Disney movies being sold at discount prices, as Deadline was the first to report — is getting more intense.

The movie kiosk company filed court documents accusing the Burbank entertainment giant of copyright abuse and unfair business practices. The amended complain follows Disney’s renewed efforts to have a federal court judge stop Redbox from selling digital download codes for its movies.

In its response, Redbox described Disney’s increasingly aggressive efforts to prevent the discount retailer from purchasing Disney’s “Combo Packs” that contain a DVD, a high-definition Blu-ray disc and a download code. The kiosk is making the download codes available at significant discounts — less than half of the cost of downloading movies on iTunes. The timing inflamed tensions over the move, as Disney had just rolled out its long bruited-about Movies Anywhere service, having sat on the sidelines as other studios promoted the similar UltraViolet technology.


“Disney wants to eliminate low-cost options like Redbox,” the new complaint says, “in order to force consumers to pay as much as possible for Disney’s content, even after Disney has already been fully compensated when it first sells that content to a distributor or retailer.” It also cites marketing by Disney around Coco, Thor: Ragnarok, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and the upcoming Black Panther, which characterizes the Redbox downloads as less than pristine.

“Incredibly, Disney complains that consumers may believe these titles … are somehow inferior to those of other studios simply because Redbox offers them at low prices,” the complaint says. “We look forward to advancing our case to an ultimate victory in court.”