Starz Entertainment sued MGM in 2020, and their lawsuit has been allowed to move forward. The lawsuit claims MGM is guilty of breach of contract for allowing its catalog of film and TV shows to run on platforms like Amazon Prime and Epix, a rival to Starz, while Starz maintains exclusive rights to more than 200 products. MGM counter-claimed that Starz “filed the complaint too late” and the lawsuit, they claimed, should be dismissed. According to the original case, Starz paid MGM about $70 million under two agreements in 2013 and 2015, which allowed the network to license 585 movies and 176 TV shows.
“The district court correctly applied the discovery rule to conclude that Starz timely filed its claims of copyright infringement,” the court said in a filing, which can be read here. “Taking all the facts in the complaint as true, there were no events that should have placed Starz on notice that MGM was violating its exclusive rights until Starz’s employee discovered the movie ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ on Amazon Prime Video in August.”
“And as the district court aptly put it, ‘When Starz did detect smoke, in the form of ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure,’ it quickly discovered the fire and promptly sued for all 340 infringements.’ Because Starz brought its claim within three years after it accrued, Starz is not barred from seeking damages for all acts of infringement,” the court said.
– Excerpt from an article for The Wrap by Ross A. Lincoln. Read the full article here.
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