Dish sued by networks over ad-skipping Auto Hop feature

breaking-news

Published on May 25th, 2012

CBS, Fox and NBC have independently filed lawsuits against Dish Network, claiming its new automatic commercial-deleting service Auto Hop violates copyright laws; Fox even goes as far as to state that Auto Hop is “destroying the fundamental underpinnings of the broadcast television ecosystem.” Auto Hop is a feature launched recently for Dish Network’s Hopper DVR. When enabled, the free add-on allows users to automatically skip over commercials aired during prime time shows on each of the four major television broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. Networks took issue with the feature immediately, of course, and now complaints have been filed by three of the four affected networks, BGR sister site Deadline reports. Dish has already filed its own complaint with a New York district court seeking a declaratory judgement that its new service is “in full compliance with copyright law and its re-broadcast agreements.”

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Tags: Dish Network, lawsuit, TV

Zach Epstein

Article source: http://www.bgr.com/2012/05/25/dish-auto-hop-lawsuit-fox-cbs-nbc/

EMKWAN

Online presenter, serial vlogger, blogger and geek 2.0. YouTube and Blip channel manager. Editor of @avorah - tech, gadgets and style webcast company.

Comments

comments

Selina Button

I’ve been reading about this everywhere, but I still don’t see the big deal. Before I had my Hopper, I fast-forwarded through commercials. My cousin who works with me at Dish was telling me that she used to record her favorite shows on a VCR just so that she could fast-forward through the commercials. Now I can do the same without wearing out my thumb from hitting fast-forward so frequently when I choose to Auto Hop on my PrimeTime Anytime recordings. Although times and technology change, skipping commercials will remain the same for TV lovers.