Cablevision Appeals Remote-Storage DVR Decision

BETHPAGE, April 10: Cablevision Systems Corporation has
announced that it is filing an appeal against a federal court ruling that
blocked the rollout of its remote-storage digital video recorder.

The planned device would allow any Cablevision subscriber
with a digital cable box to access DVR features like pausing, fast-forwarding
and recording shows on servers maintained by the cable platform. A group of
Hollywood studios and networks objected to the remote-storage system. In the
middle of last year, 20th Century Fox, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures
and The Walt Disney Company, together with ABC, CBS and NBC, filed suit seeking
an injunction to prevent Cablevision from rolling out the service. The
plaintiffs contended that because Cablevision only has agreements in place for
the simultaneous broadcast rights to their content, it would require a separate
license for the network DVR that would see Cablevision storing that content and
sublicensing it to consumers. The cable platform, the sixth largest in the
U.S., has said it will not shell out a further license fee or share the
additional revenue from charging customers for the service.

The plaintiffs succeeded and Cablevision is now seeking an
expedited review of its appeal, which cites the court’s “misapplication of
modern copyright law to remote-storage DVR,” a company statement says, “with
potentially broader negative implications for technological innovation, and the
clear consumer benefits of remote-storage DVR.”

Tom Rutledge, Cablevision's COO, stated: "We continue
to believe strongly that remote-storage DVR is permissible under current
copyright law and offers significant benefits to consumers, including lower
costs and faster deployment of this popular technology to our digital cable
customers. Our remote-storage DVR is the same as conventional DVRs, and merely
enables consumers to exercise their well-established rights to time-shift
television programming. The
technological innovation behind our remote- storage DVR makes a popular product
even better. It does not alter the relationship between our customers and the
programming they choose to record, and simply stores programming recorded by
consumers in a central location.”