Cablevision is mounting support for its appeal over a US court decision which has stopped it from using networked PVRs, claiming it is a copyright abuse.
The support came largely from telecom operators as well as consumer electronics manufacturers. Trade bodies USTelecom, which represents AT&T and Verizon, along with the Consumer Electronics Association and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have all filed motions of support for Cablevision’s position late last week to the US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.
Time Warner, News Corp, CBS and Disney all oppose the use of networked PVRs voicing concerns that by retaining a copy of broadcast shows the potential for piracy and VoD serving exists. VoD access to shows is tightly controlled by content owners and broadcasters and they charge more for the privilege. But Cablevision has argued that by organizing its servers so that a recording of a show is only made when a customer presses his remote control, and not under operator control, means that it is not storing the program, in effect, the customer is.
NetworkPVR can be installed more rapidly and maintained far more cheaply than individual DVRs installed on the customer premises.
“Network-based services may prove to be both cheaper and technologically superior, providing better service at reduced costs to consumers,” USTelecom Chief Executive Walter McCormick said in a statement.
Other legal submissions have called for the court to no longer regard transient copies of programming, as full copies as defined in the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, which is how the studios have managed to get nPVR stopped.
This case is likely to end up going as high as the Supreme Court as it pits two of the major entertainment lobbying powers directly against one another.