http://www.thestandard.com/article/0%2C1902%2C28439%2C00.html Comments for "Disney Alleges Sneaky Previews" en http://www.thestandard.com/article/0%2C1902%2C28439%2C00.html <p><!--paging_filter--> <p> Two Disney units have sued a New Jersey distributor of movie trailers, accusing the company of infringing their copyrights on promotional material. </p> <p>Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Miramax are requesting $111 million in damages from Video Pipeline, saying the company illegally distributed trailers for movies to retailers and video-rental stores. A 16-year-old company, Video Pipeline creates trailer packages that run on in-store monitors. Four years ago, the company began streaming some versions over the Web to these retailers so that the recipients could carry them on their Web sites. </p> <p>The Disney units argue that the licensing agreements with Video Pipeline cover only analog versions of their trailers. The entertainment giant says digitizing and streaming them violates those contracts. </p> <p>Disney's corporate office issued a statement saying the suit is "about Video Pipeline's blatant infringement of our contract and intellectual-property rights by creating unauthorized, bootleg trailers and distributing them for a profit under our registered trademarks." </p> <p>Video Pipeline executives could not be reached to comment, but the company has stated in court documents that its use of Disney trailers falls under free-speech laws, which permit a limited amount of copying. </p> <p>On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Jerome B. Simandle will hear Disney's request for a preliminary injunction against Video Pipeline. </p> <p>The shadow of Napster still looms large in the imagination of entertainment-industry executives who fear that they would lose control over their content on the Internet. </p> <p>Disney is expected to begin storing its promotional material on in-house servers, rather than distributing clips to third-party promotional and retail sites. Under this scenario, third-party sites would license a link to the Disney servers. Industry sources say installing such a system could cost about $5 million, with further costs of millions of dollars each year to send video streams to various sites. </p> <p>One issue Disney has with Video Pipeline is that the latter company was profiting from streaming the trailers by charging retail sites a per-stream fee. Entertainment industry executives might recall another company that rose to fame and fortune by repackaging promotional material: MTV. </p> <p>No other studio has sued Video Pipeline, but the Motion Picture Association of America weighed in on Disney's side earlier this week, promising to file a friend-of-the-court brief on the studio's behalf. </p> <p>Pam Horovitz, president of the National Association of Recording Merchandisers, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of Video Pipeline, says a number of entertainment companies are trying to get control over promotional content online. She says music retailers have been asked to sign licensing agreements for the rights to stream 30-second teaser clips. Studios and labels, she says, "want to control everything. And it's an outrage."<br /> <br></p> Wire Thu, 02 Aug 2001 15:00:00 -0700 Baldwin Louie 88799 at http://www.thestandard.com