I hate commercials, and for $250 I never have to watch one again thanks to a digital video recorder ("DVR") by SONICblue Inc. called ReplayTV 5000. DVR enabled television allows viewers to make digital copies of copyrighted television programs, skip commercials in a split second without fast forwarding, and send copies of televised programs to other DVR owners. This futuristic technology may soon be made obsolete because it rubs network executives the wrong way.
Paramount, Disney, NBC, ShowTime, ABC, Viacom, and CBS (hereinafter "Hollywood") have joined to address the legal copyright issues that arise due to this device. They filed a complaint against ReplayTV Inc. and SONICblue Inc. alleging contributory and vicarious copyright infringement based on the alleged direct copyright infringement committed by the owners. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Craig Newmark, owner of craigslist.org, have consolidated their case against Hollywood.
Among other things, the complaint alleges that "the unauthorized making of copies of television programming for the purpose of viewing with all commercials automatically deleted is not a fair use, and goes far beyond the narrowly circumscribed conduct discussed by the Supreme Court in the 1984 Sony Betamax decision." In the Sony decision the court ruled that since VCR's were capable of substantial noninfringing uses the VCR manufacturers were not responsible for any alleged infringing.
When playing back a program, ReplayTV 5000 asks you if you want to see the program with commercials or without. ReplayTV also has a function that allows you to record an analog version of the show without commercials if you so choose.
When you record a TV show on a normal VCR, you have the option not to record the commercials by keeping watch and pausing the recording every time a commercial comes on. Also, when watching a previously recorded TV show on a VCR you have the option of fast-forwarding through all the commercials. While a fast-forward button on a VCR has uses other than skipping commercials, it is clear that these functions on ReplayTV only have one function. ReplayTV does not do anything that can not be done with a normal VCR, but it does facilitate those "illegal functions" like skipping commercials by making them one button functions. The user still has the choice of skipping commercials and the ReplayTV 5000 is capable of substantial noninfringing uses if the user does not choose to skip commercials. However the commercial skipping capability might not have any noninfringing uses and, as sad as it sounds, might need to be removed from the list of capabilities of the ReplayTV 5000. It is still up to the court to determine whether skipping commercials is allowed.
The outcome of this case might have strong implications on any media fed to the public with commercials attached. Web sites with commercials on them might have a cause of action against users who download a whole site to read offline (thus omitting the commercials).
There are many other issues alleged in this complaint and I encourage anyone who is interested to read the following sites and cases:
http://www.replay.com/video/replaytv5000/default.asp
http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/Paramount_v_ReplayTV/20011031_complaint.html
http://www.craigslist.org/about/craig.vs.hollywood.html
