WASHINGTON – In an important case for the entertainment industry, the Supreme Court asked the Justice Department Monday to weigh in on whether the court should consider a legal challenge to a next-generation digital video recorder planned by Cablevision Systems Corp.
Major television networks and Hollywood studios are suing to stop Cablevision’s remote-storage DVR, a new service the company plans to offer this year.
Cablevision won a key ruling from a federal appeals court in Philadelphia last summer that gave the company the green light to move forward with its technology.
The networks and studios want the Supreme Court to consider the case and overturn that lower-court ruling. They argue that Cablevision’s service violates federal copyright laws.
On Monday, the justices asked the U.S. solicitor general, the federal government’s lawyer at the Supreme Court, to file a legal brief expressing the government’s opinion on whether the high court should take up the case.
The government’s position will be determined by President-elect Barack Obama’s administration in the coming months. Mr. Obama has nominated Elena Kagan, the dean of Harvard Law School, to be his solicitor general.
A Cablevision spokeswoman wasn’t immediately available for comment on whether Monday’s development would delay the company’s plans for its new DVR.
Cablevision’s service would, for the first time, allow customers to record and store television shows on central computer servers maintained by Cablevision instead of having to record them on expensive DVR cable boxes installed in their homes.
Cablevision says the system would allow it to provide DVR services at lower costs, which could lead to a rise in new subscribers to the technology.
DVR systems are popular with consumers because the technology allows viewers to watch programs whenever they choose and to skip commercials while they do so.
Among those suing to block Cablevision’s service are General Electric Co.'s NBC; CBS Corp.; Walt Disney Co.'s ABC; and News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox.
News Corp. owns Dow Jones, the publisher of this newswire and The Wall Street Journal.
Leading music companies, publishing organizations and professional sports leagues all filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting the television networks.
Thank you captain copy paste!
-edit- There should be a “We salute you” Bud commercial to the heros of the Crtl-C/Crtil-V with no editorial remorse.
Man good thing they don’t know about MythTV…:snky:
Yep I really had nothing to add.
But figured it could be a decent discussion, because we know how much people on here respect copywrite laws.