Fox Appeals Ruling on DISH AutoHop Service

ENGLEWOOD: Fox Broadcasting Company has filed a motion in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals seeking an injunction against DISH and its ad-skipping AutoHop DVR service.

A U.S. District Judge ruled back in November that the copies of Fox shows made by DISH as part of its AutoHop service were likely not infringing on any copyrights and that Fox failed to show that it had suffered harm that warranted an injunction. Fox has now gone back to the federal court challenging that decision. Fox is arguing that the previous ruling was based on a misreading of an appellate decision from 2008 that upheld Cablevision’s use of a remote DVR since the viewer was choosing which copies were made. Fox makes the point that DISH still controls a number of other factors, including what networks are included, which shows will be recorded and how long the recording is available for. Fox is also challenging the ruling that DISH did not breach its contract with the network, which does include provisions that restrict the use of Fox programming on a VOD-type service.