FilmOn X Petitions for Rehearing of 9th Circuit Decision

Copyright Office interpretation of Section 111 of the Copyright Act isn't backed by plain text or consistently applied, FilmOn X said in a petition (in Pacer) for rehearing en banc filed Tuesday with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It said the 9th Circuit's March 21 decision that it isn't a cable system and thus eligible for a compulsory license for broadcast programming (see 1703210023) doesn't offer a workable legal standard for eligibility for a Section 111 license. It said the court's "highly deferential treatment [of Copyright Office viewpoints] invades both Congress' power to enact law and the court's duty to interpret that law." FilmOn pointed to statutory licenses given AT&T's U-Verse and Verizon Fios but not to it as examples of inconsistency in granting of statutory licenses. The ruling "mildly endorses" the CO view that a cable system is inherently localized, but it ignored evidence FilmOn restricts retransmission to local communities and thus should be eligible for such a license, it said. Counsel for the appellants, a collection of broadcasters and programmers, didn't comment Wednesday.