Federal Judge Denies Injunction Against DISH Ad-Skipping DVR

By Rob Scott
November 12, 2012

A federal judge in California ruled last week that broadcasters did not prove they had sustained enough damage from DISH Network’s ad-skipping Hopper DVR to warrant a preliminary injunction.
“U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles refused to grant Fox Broadcasting’s first attempt to block DISH Network’s advertising-skipping DVR services known as ‘AutoHop’ and ‘PrimeTime Anytime,'” explains The Hollywood Reporter.
However, Fox says it is “gratified the court found the copies DISH makes for its AutoHop service constitute copyright infringement and breach the parties’ contract.”
“The satellite company is asserting that AutoHop (aka the Hopper) is really just an improvement on existing recording devices that have been accepted by the industry and judicially blessed as ‘fair use’ going back to the Supreme Court’s 1984 ruling on the Sony Betamax VCR and continuing through the Ninth Circuit’s 2008 ruling on Cablevision’s remote-storage DVR,” explains THR.
“Fox dismisses DISH’s contention that the technology is merely a ‘souped-up DVR’ and disputes that the freedom to time-shift is at stake here,” notes the article.
The court ruling is currently sealed from public view until both parties have the opportunity to remove any trade secrets. Fox said it intends to appeal the decision.

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