The company uses customizable filters to automatically cut out scenes or sounds which the viewer does not want to see or hear.

[1] In 2016, it was sued by several major Hollywood studios who said the original method it used to filter objectionable content from movies, which involved decrypting DVDs and Blu-rays, violated copyright protections.

[5] Its current model is based entirely on streaming, filtering movies and TV shows from Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Apple TV+.

It also filters titles from other services which are available through Amazon, including Showtime, Starz, Paramount+, AMC+, BritBox, and PBS Masterpiece.

After viewing the film, the customer could choose to sell its "copy" back to VidAngel for $19, making the net cost $1 for 24 hours.

VidAngel cited the Family Movie Act of 2005 (FMA) as legally protecting customers' right to use their service to filter films.

Studios claimed that VidAngel then bought licensed discs from retail stores, made copies, and employed a method of "streaming from its own 'master' copies of works that VidAngel has created on its own servers rather than layering its filters over an authorized stream".

[14] In 2016, four major Hollywood studios – Lucasfilm, 20th Century Fox, Disney Enterprises, Inc., and Warner Bros. – filed a federal lawsuit against VidAngel for circumventing copyright protection on DVDs and for unlicensed video streaming, accusing them of violating the DMCA.

A statement on the company's blog announced: "VidAngel is not going away", that the company has "millions of dollars in the bank, and now generating millions in revenue," and stated its goal was "to reorganize the business around our new streaming model" to stay in business and pay damages when they finally lose the pending trial.

VidAngel emerged from bankruptcy in 2020 and has continued to use the streaming model to filter content through Netflix, Amazon Prime, and later, Apple TV+.

Aho stated that the company's legal troubles are in the past and noted that most Hollywood studios chose not to participate in the lawsuit.