Shortly after Columbia Pictures, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled on a factually similar case, On Command Video Corp. v. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. 156 On Command also allowed hotel guests to watch movies in their rooms.157 Instead of the guest physically renting the cassette tape show ever, the guests requested the movie from the guestroom’s TV,and a VCR in a remote location containing the movie played to the guest’s room.158 Because “a performance occurs where it is received”and the VCR played from a remote location to hotel guests—a sector
of the public—the district court found a public performance violation.159
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals took up the transmit clause in NFL v. Prime Time 24 Joint Venture.160 Prime Time rented satellite dish antennas to customers and made