Cablevision in Legal Battle Over Copyright
Cable provider Cablevision is being sued by major studios for using Digital Video Recording Technology. Cablevision’s remote-storage DVR or RS-DVR is being marketed as a device that basically lets users record shows on schedule and watch these on demand, with the option to zip past advertisements.
The issue here: the studios say that Cablevision isn’t paying license fees for “video on demand,” which the technology they are selling is, by definition.
In a case that could reshape copyright law, Fox, NBC Universal, Paramount Pictures, CBS and Disney asked a U.S. district court here to stop Cablevision Systems from rolling out a service that lets an ordinary digital set-top box function as a DVR, like TiVo. There are 45 million such digital boxes in use.
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The studios argue that means Cablevision is selling not a DVR, but a video on demand service, without paying the studios a license fee as they do for VOD. “Unlike with a set-top box, Cablevision will copy copyrighted content and retransmit it without authorization,” says Kori Bernards of the industry’s Motion Picture Association of America. “Cablevision’s refusal to seek a license has left the plaintiffs no option but to sue.”
Cablevision argues that the service is not video-on-demand, but simply a digital video recorder, even if the actual “recorder” is not in the premises of the subscriber, but in Cablevision’s own facilities. This is the basic premise that would be argued in court: whether such a facility should be considered as in fact offering video-on-demand, or simply as a remote-DVR, analysts say. Further, the issue could take years to resolve, even reaching Supreme Court-level, much like the landmark MGM vs. Grokster case.
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