VidAngel critical court hearing delayed until Nov. 14

LOS ANGELES (Christian Examiner) – A federal court hearing that could decide the future of the movie filtering/streaming service VidAngel has been delayed until mid-November.

VidAngel was sued this summer by four Hollywood studios who claim the streaming service is illegal, and they asked for a preliminary injunction against the company that could force it to halt operations. That injunction hearing was previously scheduled for Oct. 31 but was delayed until Nov. 14.

VidAngel's service allows families to watch mainstream movies without the coarse language, sexuality or violence. The studios -- Disney, Warner Brothers, Twentieth Century Fox, and Lucasfilm – say VidAngel is operating illegally without a license. VidAngel's attorneys say the company is legal because it is protected by the Family Movie Act, which was passed by Congress and signed into law in 2005 by President George W. Bush.

"The Family Movie Act provides that if a homeowner buys a lawful copy of content – a DVD disk – that homeowner by law has a right to ask a third party – here, VidAngel – to filter content that that family finds objectionable," VidAngel attorney David W. Quinto previously told the Christian Examiner. "And that the third party, here VidAngel, has the right to stream that content, filtered as requested and specified by the family to the family – provided that the third party never makes a permanent copy of the filtered content. That's what the law says. There is no requirement in there that the third party purchase any license. In fact, that would be a form of double charge."

VidAngel customers pay $20 to purchase a streamed movie, and then can sell it back for $18 (HD) or $19 (SD). Although customers may not realize it, each movie they purchase has a corresponding physical DVD in the VidAngel library that they are purchasing.