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Multiple ReplayTV Lawsuits Dismissed

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the lawsuit-society dept.

bluephone writes "News.com.com.com.com... has article about a federal judge dismissing lawsuits brought by 5 users and the EFF over fears of being sued by media corporations. U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper stated the suits were moot since media companies agreed not to sue users in August 2003. She also pointed out that the suit brought by media companies against ReplayTV has been dismissed as well."

5 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. This just in... by NightSpots · · Score: 5, Funny

    Small consumers powerless against large corporations. Film at 11.

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    Use Vobbo for Video Blogs
    1. Re:This just in... by dschuetz · · Score: 5, Informative

      not quite. if the studios ever threaten again, we have this case to point to as precedence.

      Not quite. I haven't R'd the FA yet, but I'm betting the cases were dismissed because the plantiffs "Lacked Standing." That's a legal term for "nobody's done anything wrong to you, so get out of my courtroom."

      It's one of the more frustrating aspects of our legal system (to me, anyway) -- the inability to pre-emptively decide issues. Instead, you have to wait until you're actually *sued* for something, and then, if the plantiff drops the suit, you may have to go through it all again in the future the next time they decide to rattle your chain.

      (Just like the RIAA and watermarking paper).

      Now I'll go read the article to see just how wrong I am....

  2. Re:It's moot. But it will come back. by NanoGator · · Score: 5, Informative

    Replay's dead? Then how come they still charge me $10 a month for a service they are still actively providing?

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    "Derp de derp."
  3. Article Summary by GoodNicsTken · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1. Hollywood firms equate skipping commercials to stealing TV 2. Sue Sonic Blue into Bankrupcy 3. Sonic Blue is forced to sell of the business unit 4. New company disables the features 5. Hollywood drops suit so they can use the same tatic against the next firm that dares give consumers fair use rights over content they have paid for. 6. .... (Any Manufactures in China want to step up? )

  4. Re:It's moot. But it will come back. by JamieF · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Oh yay. I can't wait for the day when my PVR channel guide is kept up to date by the same sort of company that prints documentation on a photocopier and deliberately omits their company name, contact info, and even product model number so you can't actually go to them for support. Excellent.

    I've worked at a PVR company on channel guide functionality, and it's not easy. The amount of data for every single show broadcast on every head end in the US is actually fairly large, and obviously it gets updated a lot. I don't think that an open source approach to maintaining a feed of channel guide data will work until / unless PVRs get a LOT more market penetration. (The data becomes obsolete very quickly, and has to be constantly refreshed, unlike software that you just keep building on.) That's why, for the next few years, somebody is going to have to get paid to provide the channel guide info. That might be your cable or satellite provider, though. A good way to get free channel guide info might be to hack your cable or satellite box, or maybe to just create a gadget that reads it right off the cable TV signal.