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TiVo vs EchoStar - TiVo Wins
ssuchter writes "A jury just ruled in favor of TiVo in their suit against EchoStar, awarding TiVo $73M of the $87M they asked for. From the article: 'TiVo had sought $87 million in damages from the Dish satellite-TV network in a patent dispute that TiVo lawyers said could be "life or death" for the company that sold the first box for pausing and rewinding live television.'"
The redneck jury gave validation to Tivo to create a monopoly on DVR. The fact is Tivo didn't invent the DVR they improved it (arguably). While I have used their DVR and I find it user friendly (often drives me nuts it's so dumbed down) and it does have some *geek* friendly features which set it apart from most DVRs... it's sad to see other companies not be able to produce their own DVR without Tivo forcing their hands into it.
Tivo is trying to be the Microsoft of DVRs and apparently the Rednecks in Texas agree. Echostar and other companies have not ripped off Tivo, if you've used a Tivo and used any other DVR you can tell the difference. Tivo's business model has been wrong and that is the reason why they have not been able to turn a profit.
Who would enjoy paying $12 / month plus the hardware fee (now they give free boxes away with a higher monthly fee) just for the privilege to receive guide data and record / re-encode your analog tv, cable, satellite? They are an addon which doesn't make much sense.
I hope Tivo doesn't sue every home-brew / MythTV DVR user. My bet is Sony is next to be sued, they have a DVR which uses OTA guide data, all you have to do is buy the hardware.