Family-friendly streaming app VidAngel avoids bankruptcy in legal settlement

An app known for allowing families to cut unwanted language and inappropriate content from their entertainment will survive after a lengthy legal battle with Disney and other entertainment studios.

The family-friendly streaming app and original content studio VidAngel has spent the past four years locked in a legal dispute with Disney, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, Lucasfilm, Marvel, NewLine Cinema, and Castle Rock Entertainment.

Now, the studio is set to emerge from bankruptcy after settling the copyright dispute with the above plaintiffs.

The settlement will bring to an end what some have called the biggest copyright case of the decade.

The agreement focuses on allowing VidAngel to return from bankruptcy with other conditions to be met to satisfy the plaintiffs.

Four main points comprise the settlement deal.

Disney and Warner Brothers Studios have agreed to compromise and discount the $62.4 million District Court judgment against VidAngel.

In return, VidAngel will not decrypt, copy, stream, or distribute content from Disney, Warner Brothers, or their affiliates without permission.

VidAngel will also drop an appeal it currently has in the 9th Circuit appellate court and pay $9.9 million over 14 years to Disney and Warner Brothers.

VidAngel CEO Neal Harmon says this conclusion will allow his company to move forward as a "rapidly-growing company.

"As with any compromise, we had to make painfully difficult concessions to arrive at this agreement, as did Disney and Warner Brothers," Harmon says.

"We want to thank the team at Disney and Warner Brothers for negotiating this settlement in good faith. We also want to thank our fans and supporters, millions of people who have stood with us through thick and thin over the last four years of a battle that all-too-often looked lost and hopeless."

Utah's bankruptcy court oversaw the case with Judge Kevin R. Anderson presiding over the proceedings.

Harmon says VidAngel plans to move forward by continuing to create original content for viewers while still helping families feel as though entertainment content is safe for their children to experience.