TiVo Patent Victory Over Dish Network Upheld

Thomas Hawk writes "An appeals court today shot down Dish Network's last chance to avoid a multi-million lawsuit verdict won by TiVo over their time shifting DVR technology. In addition to having to pay TiVo a minimum of $92 million, Dish Network will also now have to honor a court injunction to turn off DVR software to most of their customers. I hope Dish Network customers like commercials with their daily dose of Dr. Phil."

Comments

This will just make tivo look bad

[fahrvergnugen]

Shutting down the DVRs for Dish Network would be the stupidest thing that Tivo could do. Dish PR just says "It's Tivo's fault," puts something out on a wire service, someone picks up the story that Tivo made Dish network but not DirecTV or Comcast shut down their DVR's, and bingo, Tivo are the bad guys even though they're the ones protecting their stolen IP from another company. Licensing is just as much in Tivo's favor as it is Dish's at this point. Letting the Dish shutdown happen would be a fiasco.

Also, does this have ramifications for other disk-based DVR's such as those offered by cable companies and DirecTV?

Re:This will just make tivo look bad

[Greyfox]

I'm rather biased against Echostar, having worked there briefly. Dealing with their HR department several years later to obtain some records was just as unpleasant as actually working for them was. I usually get knowing nods and comments from recruiters whenever I discuss it, so I know it is not just me who has had these sorts of problems with them.

If their legal department is anything like their HR department, talking to them was pretty much useless. I'd be surprised if Tivo had any recourse other than to sue them. Although I hate software patents and think that many DVR-related ones are completely retarded (TV Guide has one for the guide grid format, for example) I can't suppress a certain amount of glee that this misfortune has fallen upon Echostar. So I'm just going to point at them and go "Ha-ha!"

Re:Dish DVR

[Anonymous Coward]

IMHO, Dish should have licensed the Tivo technology and been done with it. If the software that Dish's DVR uses is "fully functional" then I guess I'm a dummy tech dork.

It took me a long ass time to figure out how to add a single TV show to record a season and I'm not sure it even did exactly what I wanted. My 60 year old parents have no idea how to use it aside from pausing, rewinding and watching the terrible "howto" video.

Re:Responses

[BACPro]

If DISH network has corrected the problem with a new software download, why do they need to pursue this to the US Supreme Court?

It would seem that it is SOP for a manufacturer to EOL a piece of equipment. Tell the users they need to upgrade. There will be some gnashing of teeth, some users will flee, but if the new product is better... Some people need a shove to move on.

Having said that, I would be pissed off if someone told me I had to abandon a perfectly functional piece of kit and upgrade. I sure a community of terrorists that have hacked their own distro of Linux onto it to maintain functionality could be found. Someone would do it because they could.

Any idea how this affects Bell Express Vue in Canada? I notice about 3 months ago we received new software that did more things that were TIVO like. Record all eps, record all new eps, priorities and so on...

Re:The shit's going to hit the fan

[Anonymous Coward]

Corporate lobbying.

Re:The shit's going to hit the fan

[OrangeTide]

I disagree. Blu-Ray and HDMI and HDTV and IPTV are all hot technologies with consumers right now and all have very intrusive DRM.

I think Vista is having trouble in the market because consumers perceive it as incompatible, slow, unstable and annoying (with its attempts to protect users by using a million dialogs). Vista will win out despite consumers because Microsoft has the strength to force a noisy minority to comply. (it's a significantly large minority though!)

Bell Expressvu

[GrBear]

Anyone know how this is going to play out insofar as Bell ExpressVu receivers in Canada?

They (Bell) use the identical "Echostar" PVR boxes as our neighbours to the south. Sounds to me like Bell is going to have a huff of angry customers too here shortly.

Directv and DRM

[ciscoguy01]

This is related, in some way.
I have a crappy, buggy Directv HR20 HD DVR. I received a message a couple days ago.

Effective April 15, 2008, DVR recordings of PPV movies will be available for 24 hours of unlimited viewing after purchase. Major movie studios have required that satellite and cable providers alike may no longer allow their customers to view these recordings for longer than 24 hours. During the 24 hour viewing period, you will continue to enjoy all of your DVR features such as pause and rewind.

It seems if I were to record a PPV movie (I don't, I don't like their PPV prices) I now have only one day to watch it before they are going to remotely erase it from my DVR.
Unbelievable.
Now there's DRM for ya!

Re:Unlikely

[NateTech]

Not to mention that Dish like other large companies who have lost patent cases in the past, will simply "license" whatever tech they infringed upon. The lawyers get paid (again) and Tivo gets a well-deserved cash-flow fix.

Whoever thinks Dish will simply turn off DVR service with the flick of a switch, is sorely lost when it comes to even simple business tactics, let alone creative thinking.