AN INTERNET start-up here has taken national broadcaster MediaCorp to court for making purportedly groundless threats of legal action.

Hearing for RecordTV's pre-emptive lawsuit began in the High Court yesterday.

The case has its seeds in 2007. That July, the start-up launched its website which allowed registered users to ask for MediaCorp's free-to-air programmes to be recorded for viewing.

That month, MediaCorp's lawyers sent RecordTV a letter asking it to stop its service and threatening to sue it for copyright infringement.

RecordTV's lawyers wrote back, alleging that MediaCorp's move was 'calculated to stifle innovation and the growth of a new industry'.

Their letter added that the Media Development Authority had confirmed that RecordTV did not need a licence to run its service - then free - as it was neither a video-on-demand service nor a broadcaster.

MediaCorp sent a second lawyer's letter in September 2007. Days later, RecordTV fired the first salvo, suing MediaCorp for making unjustifiable threats.

MediaCorp has counter-sued the start-up for copyright infringement.

RecordTV, represented by Mr Koh Chia Ling and Mr Ang Kai Hsiang, is seeking a court order to stop MediaCorp from making any more of such threats. It is also seeking damages.

The current trial deals only with liability and not the quantum of damages, but RecordTV claims to have suffered $30.5 million in losses - $23 million in revenue and $7.5 million in loss of funding.

Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.