Public Knowledge defended Dish Network’s “AutoHop” product and consumers’ rights...
Public Knowledge defended Dish Network’s “AutoHop” product and consumers’ rights to record TV programming, in a brief it sought to file with a federal court. News Corp.’s Fox sued Dish over the service and sought to block it (CD Aug…
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28 p5). The service makes it easier for subscribers to watch prime-time TV shows without ads. Public Knowledge said it filed the brief, but it had not yet appeared in the docket for the case in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, a review of the records showed. The court should reject Fox’s attempts to assert rights it lacks, the Public Knowledge brief said (http://xrl.us/bnqbyk). Fox “attempts to erase the long-settled distinction between direct and secondary copyright infringement in an attempt to portray its anti-consumer lawsuit as a business dispute,” the brief said. “Its argument -- that it is unlawful for a viewer to record a program and then play it back without commercials -- is not limited to DISH customers. If Fox prevails, all private, noncommercial home recording is in peril.” A Fox spokesman said the company plans to file an opposition to the Public Knowledge brief. “We are not challenging consumers’ DVR use, but we are attempting to stop Dish’s unauthorized VOD service that strips out our commercials, in violation of our Contracts with Dish and copyright law,” he said. “Additionally, Dish itself has admitted that disabling those features will have no impact on consumers’ DVR usage."