Supreme Court Rejects Appeal to Block Network DVRs

By Geoff Duncan
June 29, 2009

In a win for cable operators, the Supreme Court has rejected an appeal seeking to block CableVision's Network DVR.

Since 2007, cable operator CableVision has been attempting to launch a network DVR service, in which subscribers' programming choices would be recorded on servers in data centers maintained by CableVision, rather than on set-top boxes in users' homes. The plan immediately ran into legal trouble from broadcast networks and movie studios, who argued that storing content on behalf of a subscriber and sending it down the wire later amounting to re-broadcasting the content—something that wasn't covered under the cable operator's license to carry the content in the first place.

A U.S. District Court agreed and blocked CableVision from rolling out the service; CableVision launched an appeal and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the lower court's summary injunction, ruling network DVr functionality amounted to ...

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