Fox's Attempt To Block Ad-skipping TV Recorder Autohop Fails

another random user writes that Fox's preliminary attempt to stop Dish Network's Autohop feature has failed in court. "A bid to block a TV service that allows viewers to automatically skip adverts on recorded shows has been rejected. Fox had called for a preliminary injunction on Dish Network's Autohop ahead of a copyright ruling. Broadcasters Fox, Comcast, NBC and CBS have each sued Dish Networks, saying the show recordings are unauthorized. Fox said it would appeal against the ruling. It says Autohop is 'destroying the fundamental underpinnings of the broadcast television ecosystem.' But Dish called the decision not to grant a preliminary injunction a 'victory for common sense.' Its Hopper digital video recorder can record and store prime-time content from the four major networks for up to eight days. And the Autohop feature lets viewers skip advertisements completely — rather than fast-forwarding through them — at the press of a button."

There's this website

[Anonymous Coward]

It lets me find where I can download TV with the ads already skipped, months before it screens in my country.

Re:I remember when...

[MorphOSX]

Rates will go down when the number of things causing accidents does. Texting/distracted driving has gone WAY up, so even if all the features making the insurance rates go down, in theory, are there, then the average cost to all insurers to cover the people that get into wrecks while distracted driving, etc., jack them right back up again, since it all works off of an aggregate pool. So, while income from subscriptions to cable/satellite may ultimately negate the need for commercials, the cost of funding the programing goes up as well, through greed and inflation. So, what cost maybe $1.5m to make in 1990, now costs 10.5+, and considering the amount of stuff on TV that people watch, the sheer enormity of the costs to produce it all would nowhere near be covered by subscription fees alone. that leaves you with the basic other source of funding: advertisements.

You will get what you pay for...

[NotQuiteReal]

This just means "free" programming will become even more unwatchable.

I rarely watch live broadcast TV, and the other day I saw a show that had crap all over the screen - network bug in one corner, what I guess is a "twitter hashtag" in another corner - random "tweets" popping up... if not that then a crawl on the screen advertising when some OTHER show will come on, etc. etc. Let alone the full-on commercials.

As everyone uses a recorder and skips ads, the networks will have no choice but to embed ads into the content even deeper, if that is possible.

Even for "free" I don't want it. I, like others, am "this close" to canceling the tv portion of my cable bill altogether.

They charge Dish Network to carry them, right?

[BenJeremy]

This is the thing that has bothered me since the (1996?) law was changed, allowing "free" broadcast channels to charge cable and satellite operators to carry them. If they had to rely on OTA viewers, their ratings (and thusly, their advertising revenue) would go to shit. Cable and satellite providers boost these ratings, making their commercial revenue much greater... but they get to double dip?

The way I see it, when they charge for access to their programming, commercials are no longer a relevant part of the "ecosystem" - they are no different from HBO or Showtime, since they collect fees for every viewer on that system. In that respect, skipping commercials are fair game.

Re:Screw 'em all.

[JDG1980]

It boggles my mind why everyone on a geek website buys products like this rather than just get an old PC, a TV tuner card and install Linux+mythTV on it.

Linux+MythTV won't be a viable PVR option for many users until CableCard is cracked (or unless the FCC actually forces the cable companies to be platform agnostic, which seems very unlikely). OTA TV isn't good enough unless you want to be very limited in the shows you can watch.

Re:Screw 'em all.

[triffid_98]

I realize it gets no geek cred, but Windows Media Center works just fine with CableCard. It also doesn't require you to pay subscription fees for TV listings like MythTV does.

Oh and also integration with both Netflix and XBMC, I really want to like MythTV. It does a lot of things well but it can't do everything I need it to.

FCC requires IEEE-1394 unencrypted feed

[girlinatrainingbra]

The FCC also requires every cable provider to give you a set-top box (STB) that gives unencrypted access via a firewire (IEEE 1394) port. Look it up. Write down the requirement number. Call up your provider and tell them to give you a box with IEEE-1394 access to an unencrypted feed.

:>)

Reference: 1394 interface as defined in the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandate for a functional 1394 interface in the STB [1394ta.org]

1394 Trade Association sez : http://www.1394ta.org/press/TAPress/2010_0622.html [1394ta.org]

Re:I remember when...

[Anonymous Coward]

Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong WRONG.

The cost of anything will never go down because the market has already worked out how much you're willing to pay. If the cost of the service to the vendor ever goes down then that's PROFIT. Prices will never go down even if the cost of providing the services reaches zero.

If the cost reaches zero then the only way to realize that cost reduction is by reimplementing the whole system at reduced cost again...cloning. Of course we have IP law to make sure this doesn't happen and we can keep prices artificially high.