TiVo Slaps EchoStar, Its Customers

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by Blake Robinson on August 18, 2006

In a recent ruling, a Texas judge found that EchoStar (Dish Network) had purposefully infringed many TiVo DVR copyrights. EchoStar now must pay TiVo nearly $90 million in damages. In addition to the cash settlement, several million Dish Network DVRS will be rendered effectively useless.

Now I can empathize with a company wanting to maintain its intellectual properties and all that noise, but to negatively impact so many innocent consumers is a sad thing. I think a course of action fairer to consumers would have been to assess the valuation of the DVRs in use and then adjust the settlement price accordingly. The damage is already done, so to remove them from the market really does nothing but to make a ridiculous and wasteful statement.

Judge: EchoStar’s DVR Must Be Disabled [I4U]

Comments

Alex - August 18th, 2006 at 11:29 am GMT+5

I was planning on getting Dish network for their HDTV package… Does this mean I cant use their DVR?

Id like to see a write up about how this will affect future buyers.

-Alex

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Brian Scott - August 18th, 2006 at 1:45 pm GMT+5

This is what it says on the Dish Website:

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., August 18, 2006 – EchoStar Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH) issued the following statement regarding recent developments in the Tivo Inc. v. EchoStar Communications Corp. lawsuit:

“We are pleased that this morning, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. temporarily blocked an injunction issued by a Texas Court, while it considers a longer-term stay of that injunction.

As a result of the stay EchoStar can continue to sell, and provide to consumers, all of its digital video recorder models. We continue to believe the Texas decision was wrong, and should be reversed on appeal. We also continue to work on modifications to our new DVRs, and to our DVRs in the field, intended to avoid future alleged infringement.”

http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/aboutus/presskit/press/index.shtml

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