John C. Ulin

Ulin has spent more than a year leading the charge on behalf of the three major television networks against purveyors of a new technology to stream TV shows directly to individual viewers over the Internet.

The issue is whether thousands of simultaneous retransmissions of an ongoing broadcast amount to a "public performance" of the show under the federal Copyright Act or simply a lot of nonpublic, one-by-one transmissions.

Out of a half-dozen lawsuits challenging the practice, Ulin has scored victories against it in three. "We've helped to turn the tide," he said.

On Feb. 19, he secured the first preliminary injunction against the technology's developer, Aereo Inc., for a local Utah broadcaster. Nexstar Broadcasting v. Aereo Inc., 13-975 (D. Utah, Oct. 24, 2013).

The win is especially significant because the question of how copyright law should deal with Aereo's technology will be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in less than two weeks. American Broadcasting Companies Inc. v. Aereo Inc., 13-461 (U.S., cert. filed Oct. 11, 2013). Ulin's firm has filed amicus briefs for Major League Baseball and the National Football League in that case, although Ulin himself is not on them.

He also won or helped win injunctions in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. for the major networks against an Aereo competitor. NBCUniversal Media LLC v. FilmOn X LLC, 12-06950 (C.D., Cal., Aug. 13, 2012), and Fox Television Stations Inc. v. FilmOn X LLC, 13-758 (D.D.C., May 23, 2013).

As Ulin sees it, the issue in the cases is the straightforward application of the law. "The technology is not significant," he said. "The question is whether you retransmit" a broadcast.

Besides that set of cases, Ulin also is defending the Saul Zaentz Co.'s claim under a decades-old licensing agreement to use "Lord of the Rings" material in online video games. Fourth Age Limited v. Warner Bros Digital Distribution Inc., 12-09912 (C.D. Cal., Nov. 19, 2012).

And he has stayed active in his first legal field, the Voting Rights Act. Ulin was lead counsel in November in the first trial under the act since the Supreme Court axed a major portion of it in 2012. Jones v. Deininger, 12-185, (E.D. Wisc.., Feb. 23, 2012).

- Don J. DeBenedictis