Cablevision Systems sued over planned on-demand video service

Four Hollywood studios and the three major television networks have filed a lawsuit against Cablevision Systems Corp. from launching an “on-demand” video service, which is aimed at replacing the need for living room digital video recorder.

They are claiming that this planned service would be breaking copyright laws by enabling subscribers to store and play back TV programs through computer servers controlled by the cable TV operator.

In comparison, the conventional digital video recorder (DVR) devices store the video programming on individual hard drives built into the set-top boxes owned by the subscribers.

Kori Bernard, a spokesperson for the Motion Picture Association of America said in a statement on this lawsuit: “Cablevision is actually copying, storing and retransmitting it. A commercial entity can’t establish a for-profit, on-demand service without authorization from copyright owners whose content is used on that service.”

Cablevision on their part claims that their service would be similar to conventional service providers like TiVo, as they would enable the consumer to choose which programs to record and play back. They said in a statement: “This lawsuit is without merit, reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of Cablevision’s remote-storage DVR and ignores the enormous benefit and well-established right of viewers to time-shift television programming. We hope and expect the court will allow our customer-friendly technological approach to move forward.”