Audio Video News

Expressing fear that consumers' fair use rights will be eroded, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has weighed in on a recent copyright infringement lawsuit brought against SonicBlue, Inc. by a triumvirate of companies from the entertainment industry. At issue is the ability of SonicBlue's latest hard-disk video recorder to skip commercials and transmit recorded programs.

The CEA is concerned that, if the action against SonicBlue is successful, it could engender others like it, eventually curtailing the features that manufacturers can include in their products and depriving consumers of their legally-established rights to record TV programs for later viewing. The organization issued an official statement on November 5, in which CEA chairman Gary Shapiro lambasted the litigation for its "troubling implications."

The lawsuit ". . . seems to reflect a strategy of litigating against technology, rather than creating new ways to embrace it," Shapiro stated. "A legitimate concern over Internet retransmission of content must not be used as a Trojan Horse to roll back established recording and fair use rights in the home; nor should it be assumed that consumers are irresponsible in the use of material delivered into their homes."

SonicBlue is a Santa Clara, CA–based technology company, a member of the CEA, and maker of the ReplayTV 4000 personal video recorder. Not yet on the market, the PVR is at the heart of a suit brought in early November against the manufacturer by Walt Disney Company, NBC, and Viacom, Inc., claiming copyright infringement because it will allow users to skip commercials and forward copied TV programs to other users. These two abilities could deprive the plaintiffs of revenue from advertising and subscription fees, the three media giants claim.

The CEA disputes those allegations and points out that TV viewers have been able to skip commercials since the advent of the VCR. "The plaintiffs now appear to claim that commercial skipping, which consumers have done through a variety of methods (including changing the channel), violates their copyright. Consumers have always been able to fast forward through commercials on current analog VCRs," Shapiro added. "For years, some VCRs have had a 'commercial skip' function. Getting down to this level of functionality seems to be a direct attack on the Supreme Court decision, in the Betamax case, that staple articles of commerce that are capable of 'substantial non-infringing uses' may legally be distributed to consumers."