Judge Dolly Gee of the U.S. District Court, Central District of California, shut down Fox Broadcasting Company’s efforts to bar DISH subscribers from using the PrimeTime Anytime and AutoHop features found on the pay-TV provider’s Hopper whole-home DVR. The ruling relates to case CV 12-04529 DMG. According to DISH, in her decision, Judge Gee “found it likely that, contrary to Fox’s assertion, DISH customers using PrimeTime Anytime cannot be liable for copyright infringement; that copies made using the Hopper’s PrimeTime Anytime feature do not infringe on Fox’s exclusive reproduction rights under federal copyright laws; that neither the AutoHop commercial-skipping feature nor the PrimeTime Anytime feature constitutes unauthorized distribution under federal copyright laws; and that AutoHop does not violate the Video-On-Demand provisions of the 2010 retransmission consent agreement (RTC) between Fox and DISH.” Comments R. Stanton Dodge, executive vice president/general counsel at DISH, “The ruling underscores the U.S. Supreme Court’s ‘Betamax’ decision, with the court confirming a consumer’s right to enjoy television as they want, when they want, including the reasonable right to skip commercials, if they so choose.”

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