Late last year the billionaire Alki David, founder and CEO of FilmOn.com, launched a remarkable online campaign against CNET, the tech news and software download site owned by CBS Interactive. In a series of videos and articles, David accused CBS and its executives of distributing millions of copies of Lime Wire’s file-sharing software through CNET and encouraging massive copyright infringement. He “cordially invited” his audience to join him in a class action suit against CNET and to share in a potential damages award “in the many billions of dollars.”
FilmOn.com just so happens to be a defendant in unrelated copyright litigation brought by CBS and other media companies, and David’s allegationsinspired, he claims, by a YouTube star who’s been railing against CNET for monthsmight have been dismissed as bluster. But David recently announced that he was working with IP lawyer Michael Zeller of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, even including a discussion with Zeller in one of his anti-CNET videos. And Zeller apparently thinks David has a case: On Tuesday he filed a Los Angeles federal district court copyright infringement suit though not a class action against CNET, CBS Interactive, and Lime Wire on behalf of David and about a dozen rap musicians.
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