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Provo-based filtering service VidAngel is back in business with "hope" that a different business model and new technology will prevent another lawsuit.
VidAngel CEO Neal Harmon announced Tuesday night that the business has developed new technology through which its customers can stream and filter content from Netflix, Amazon, HBO, Hulu and similar sites to which they subscribe.
The technology is based on a "crowd-sourced tagging tool" and computer-based algorithms for filtering, according to a news release on VidAngel's website.
In the news release, the company writes: "Will Netflix, Amazon, HBO, or others sue VidAngel? We hope not. After all, we are driving new customers and new business to them."
Harmon said Wednesday that the company "did reach out ... in friendship" to Netflix and Amazon separately, before making the announcement. The Utah business told the streaming companies about launching the new system, how it works, and how it could drive new sales and new users — "tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands" — to their sites, Harmon said.
Harmon added that the conversation included expressing VidAngel's interest in forming a partnership. But, Harmon said, "their current contracts with studios don't allow an official partnership with us."
When asked to elaborate on the larger streaming companies' reactions to what VidAngel is doing, Harmon declined to comment further, stating that he does not represent them.
Netflix and Amazon did not immediately returned requests for comment Wednesday afternoon.
In the past, VidAngel allowed customers to virtually "buy" movies for $20, select which parts they wanted to filter out — such as violence, nudity, specific curse words — and then "sell back" the movie for $19 worth of VidAngel credit after watching.
Four major Hollywood studios — Disney Enterprises, Inc., Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. — filed suit against VidAngel last year in Central California's U.S. District Court for streaming and altering content produced by the studios without permission.
VidAngel filed a counterclaim, stating that its actions and business plan are legal under the federal Family Movie Act, but a federal judge enforced an injunction in late December, ordering the Utah company to stop providing edited versions of TV shows and movies from the four Hollywood studios.
VidAngel's release said the business hiatus imposed by the injunction "allowed us to concentrate all our efforts on finishing" the new technology for filtering content from other streaming platforms.
The release says that VidAngel's new technology solves all the concerns raised in the lawsuit, and that the technology is immediately available for content on the streaming sites not owned by the four studios involved in the suit. VidAngel plans to file a motion in federal court, asking whether the injunction applies to its new technology. If the motion is granted, VidAngel plans to filter the plaintiffs' content under its new business model.
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