cablevisionThis 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.


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This entry was posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 8:19 am.
Categories: Copyright Caucus, Today in IP ~ by Ian McClure.

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