FilmOn bosses face tense negotiations with their television network affiliates in an effort to restore live TV streaming to its website, after federal court ruled on a temporary restraining order against the popular streaming website.

This ruling means that the website is, at least temporarily, shut down, while it defends its interpretation of the hotly debated copyright law that allows them to retransmit signals from their network partners. A failure to convince the courts of their innocence will result in permanent closure for the company.

The judge at the US District Court in New York issued a temporary restraining order against FilmOn on Monday, this follows a lawsuit filed by the four major US TV networks (Fox, CBS, ABC and NBC) after FilmOn streamed signals of the respective television stations across the Internet without prior consent. The controversy surrounding FilmOn  is based on broadcasters hurring to get a grip on their distribution control, with new and lucrative  of their content as a plethora of new distributors such as Google TV, Apple TV, and streaming sites try to bring shows and film to Internet users.

“We respect the Court’s decision in this matter and have temporarily ceased retransmission of free network television on FilmOn,” said a spokesman for the free site, which attracted over 30 million users in the first month of the September 2010 US launch.

A press release added: “FilmOn will be drafting papers in opposition to the Networks’ motion for a preliminary injunction in the coming weeks, with which it expects to submit to the court the opinion of an expert on FilmOn’s technology in order to demonstrate that FilmOn is indeed a cable system. If FilmOn successfully opposes the Networks’ motion for a preliminary injunction, the court’s Temporary Restraining Order – which by law can only remain in effect for a short duration – will be dissolved.”

The takedown comes shortly after FilmOn launched a free iPad streaming service. It is unclear at this time if the streaming will be shut down on the Apple device.

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