New software upgrades to Dish Network’s controversial AutoHop DVR feature may bolster its legality and help position the company against the lawsuit brought on by broadcasters NBC, CBS and Fox.
“Dish has been quietly tweaking the functionality inside its multi-room DVR, dubbed the Hopper, which allows subscribers to skip over commercials in primetime broadcast series one day after being recorded on the device’s hard drive,” reports Variety.
Subscribers can now select which channels to record rather than to have all four major networks recorded automatically. They can now delete recordings at any time. And, most importantly, the default to skip ads is set to “no.”
“While the changes may seem minor, they seem to represent a calculated strategy on Dish’s behalf to shift responsibility to viewers for the recording and ad-skipping rather than let them passively receive these features,” notes the article.
Shifting that responsibility could become a key component in assessing the legality of AutoHop, since a similar 2006 case has been cited as a possible precedent.
When content creators sued Cablevision regarding its remote-storage DVR, “the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the legality in a decision that hinged on the degree to which the viewer had control over the technology.”
New software upgrades to Dish Network’s controversial AutoHop DVR feature may bolster its legality and help position the company against the lawsuit brought on by broadcasters NBC, CBS and Fox.
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