Starz Entertainment LLC filed suit today against Buena Vista Television for copyright infringement via online downloads. Disney has licensed Apple's iTunes store and Wal-Mart's online retailer to sell Disney movies via electronic downloads. According to the lawsuit, this violates contracts already in place between Starz and BVT that prohibit Disney from selling its films for transmission over the Internet until the end of Starz's exclusive license periods. The terms were set in 1993 and 1999, and re-extended by BVT in 2005.

Starz Entertainment CEO Robert B. Clasen said, "Disney has been a great partner. We hope to continue our relationship. But our agreements clearly prohibit them from selling their movies by electronic download over the Internet while they are exclusive to Starz. If Disney is permitted to violate our contract in this manner, it will undermine the integrity of copyright in general which is a cornerstone of our industry. The film studios have been very aggressive, and quite rightly so, in protecting their copyrights, particularly with regard to the Internet. Starz must be equally aggressive in protecting the value of the deal it made. It is especially disappointing to see one of the largest studios ignore so blatantly its own contractual obligations to protect the copyrights it has licensed to Starz."

(Source: PR Newswire)