This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to review a 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals decision which may allow lower-cost use of DVR services without cable boxes. Cablevision Systems Corporation allows users to record television shows on Cablevision’s central computer servers, instead of on cable boxes in the user’s home. This allows more space for recordings, and eliminates the cost of installing cable boxes to store the recordings. Cablevisions system was challenged by a number of television networks, who allege that the system violates U.S. Copyright laws. A New York federal district court sides with the television networks, holding that the system illegally copied the copyrighted shows and stored them for redistribution to others for profit. The 2nd Circuit, however, reversed, holding that Cablevision was not responsible nor liable for copies made by customer’s request. The secondary liability theory that succeeded in many internet music downloading site cases was rejected.
The U.S. Supreme Court decided this morning not to review the 2nd Circuit decision, leaving the holding in place. For now, this decision may lead the revolution around copyright laws and into digital television standards. More on that soon . . .
More details on the case via WSJ article HERE.
Ian McClure is a former corporate & securities and intellectual property law attorney with 
Trevor M. Blum is a former Associate in the Chicago-based, valuation practice group of Ocean Tomo, LLC., an intellectual property (IP) consultancy. Additionally, he provided instrumental research support to Intellectual Property Exchange International, Inc., an IP exchange start-up. Trevor holds a B.S. from Indiana University and is currently an MBA candidate at the University of Cambridge, focusing on international business and finance. His interests also include entrepreneurship, economics, and informational visualization. He enjoys running and cycling in his free time. Trevor seeks to bring a transnational business perspective to the blog. 
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