Cablevision files amicus brief
Networked DVR maker Cablevision files an amicus curae in a case that may redefine cable television licensing.
The Copyright Alliance worries that this summer’s appeals court ruling, which legitimized the product, “validates a well-worn stratagem for evading responsibility and undermining licensing.”
The dispute centers on Cablevision’s RS-DVR, which locates all the necessary DVR equipment in the company’s central office, not in the customer’s living room. Cablevision pays a license fee to broadcasters in order to stream their content directly to users, but it does not pay anything extra for its new system, which creates a 1.2-second content buffer of all outgoing content to make recording possible the moment the customer presses the button. In essence, the entire cable network becomes a long-distance remote control device that is operated by the customer sitting comfortably on a couch, telling the system he or she wants to record some new episode of Lost.