A California federal judge Monday dismissed a breach of contract suit alleging the University of California, Los Angeles, violated the copyrights of educational-video makers when it implemented a system for streaming videos online to students and faculty. The lawsuit asserted federal causes of action for copyright infringement and unlawful circumvention under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, as well as state law claims for breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, unjust enrichment, interference with contract, and interference with prospective business advantage.
In a multipronged decision issued Monday, U.S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall ruled that “public performance” rights conveyed in UCLA’s contract with educational film distributor Ambrose Video Publishing Inc. gave the school the right to stream the licensed content online.
Monday’s decision vindicates UCLA, which defended the legality of its video streaming system, and may help bring clarity to the rights of colleges and universities to bring educational videos into the virtual classroom space.
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Bob Van Nest is a nationally recognized trial lawyer who frequently handles high-stakes cases for clients such as Intel, Google, Medtronic, Broadcom, and American Honda. His practice ranges widely over the field of complex business litigation and intellectual property. He has tried cases involving patent infringement, securities fraud, trademarks, commercial contracts, RICO, partnership disputes, real estate, insurance bad faith and mail and wire fraud.
Jamie Slaughter has extensive experience in complex civil and white collar criminal matters. He has successfully represented companies and individuals in breach of contract, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, trade secret, copyright, trademark and right of publicity cases. He has also represented individuals in matters with the Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice, and numerous national law firms in professional negligence cases.
Michael Kwun’s practice focuses on the legal issues raised by cutting-edge technologies. He has worked on many of the most-watched high-tech cases of the Internet era, both as in-house and outside counsel. He has a natural curiosity about, and affinity for, technology issues and can communicate as effectively with a client's engineers as their lawyers.