Supreme Court Seeks U.S. Input on Cablevision Case

(CN) - The U.S. Supreme Court asked the U.S. solicitor general on Monday to explain the government's views on a ruling allowing Cablevision Systems Corp. to develop a digital video recorder service, despite staunch opposition from television networks and film studios.

Cablevision's proposed service, called Remote Storage Video Recorder or RS-DVR, would allow subscribers to store television programs and movies on the New York cable operator's computer servers and play them back at will.

Film and television interests claimed the service violated their copyrights and asked the courts to block Cablevision from developing RS-DVR.

The plaintiffs prevailed in federal court, but lost their case before an appellate court, which ruled that Cablevision's service would not directly infringe copyrights.

The Supreme Court invited the solicitor general "to file a brief in this case expressing the views of the United States."

Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito took no part in the consideration of this case.

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