The same judge responsible for cutting the legs out from under FilmOn has ruled ivi must cease retransmitting network affiliate stations that make up the bulk of its service.

In a widely-expected ruling, the Hon. Naomi Rice Buchwald, U.S. district judge for the Southern District of New York proved to be a sympathetic judge to the interests of America’s largest broadcasting companies by mirroring an earlier decision blocking virtual online cable systems from retransmitting broadcast television programming online.

According to the court’s ruling, ivi doesn’t qualify as a cable system because, in part, it’s too new of a concept.  Buchwald ruled that the definition of a cable system was written in 1976, before the Internet was around to redefine it.  Under the Copyright Act, any cable system can rebroadcast TV signals so long as they pay copyright fees.  This “compulsory license” gives cable systems the right to carry broadcast stations, but only to cable operations subject to oversight by the Federal Communications Commission.

But since the FCC does not regulate Internet video, ivi doesn’t qualify for this provision of the Act, according to Judge Buchwald.

“First, a service providing Internet retransmissions cannot qualify as a cable system,” the ruling said. “Second, the compulsory license for cable systems is intended for localized retransmission services, and cannot be utilized by a service which retransmits broadcast signals nationwide. Third, the rules and regulations of the FCC, even if found not to be binding on a service such as ivi, are integral to the statutory licensing scheme established in 1976.”

Buchwald issued a similar ruling against FilmOn, another virtual online cable system.  Broadcasters sought the same venue to hear their latest case against ivi in hopes the judge would rule similarly, and she did.

As a result, ivi closed down its streaming service this morning pending a planned appeal:

Ivi issued this statement this morning on their website.