(Atlanta, GA) The word from very good sources here at the NCTA show is that a group of Hollywood studios is preparing a lawsuit against Cablevision regarding that operator’s networked DVR offering. Despite Cablevision’s contention that their attorneys have concluded that networked DVR is permitted within the copyright laws, several sources close to Hollywood have said that they don’t see it the same way.
Networked DVR takes the DVR concept a step further by allowing the viewer to store program selections not in the home, but in servers maintained by the cable operators. Cablevision says that the Supreme Court’s decision in Sony-Betamax permits the storage of programs for home time-shifting, and that its networked DVR option does nothing more than this.
The studios, however, contend that the Court’s Betamax decision ruled that home time-shifting is fair use under the copyright laws and that what Cablevision is doing, and what the rest of the cable industry is preparing to do, is not, in fact, home time-shifting. The storage of the programming occurs outside the home, and therefore is not clearly covered by the Court’s decision.
This distinction about where the recording occurs — in the home versus in the operator’s server — is one key factor why the studios haven’t filed a similar suit about existing DVRs. Moreover, in their pending lawsuit, the studios are unlikely to pull in the current generation of DVRs.
Cynthia Brumfield at 1:47 PM|Comments(0)
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