VIACOM SUES CABLEVISION OVER IPAD APP

Viacom on Thursday filed a lawsuit against Cablevision, the cable company that primarily serves the New York City region, for its app that allows viewers to watch television programs on their iPads at home, effectively turning them into an additional TV screen. Although Viacom and Cablevision have been discussing Viacom’s complaints — that such use violates their copyright — Viacom said Thursday that the talks have gone nowhere. “We have taken this action to protect our valuable content,” Viacom said in a statement. “Over the last few months, we have had limited and unproductive discussions with Cablevision about licensing iPad rights. We remain open to productive discussions, but we cannot wait indefinitely while our networks are being distributed without permission.” Cablevision fired back, saying that the iPad app “falls within our existing cable television licensing agreements with programmers — including Viacom.”