Digital Home Thoughts: Cablevision Plan Chewed Over By Network Lawyers

"A plan by Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) to let cable television viewers pause and store programs on the cable system instead of living room set-top boxes drew the ire of some programmers, two network owners said on Sunday. The discussion is one of the closely watched topics at the annual cable industry show sponsored by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association starting on Sunday. Oxygen Media Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Geraldine Laybourne said lawyers at all programing networks were reviewing Cablevision's so-called Network DVR, or digital video recorder, plans for copyright issues. "I think there are gigantic copyright issues that programmers are dealing with right now," Laybourne, who is co-chair of the show, said after asked for her thoughts on the plan. "Honestly, I think the lawyers at all of our companies are looking at it and trying to figure out a strategy," Laybourne added. "It's a new announcement and it's a very big change.""



Time Warner tested a similar service to this, but was shot down by network lawyers because they violated copyright by recording every channel, all the time, and storing the content on their own network. Consumers could then call up this content on demand and re-play it at any time. Cablevision's scheme involves only recording content when customers specify it (schedule a recording), therefore it's the consumer making the choice to record, not the cable provider. The legal ramifications are fairly unclear at this point, but it appears that Cablevision's scheme is on the up and up. Frankly, I wonder why the networks even care, as a service like this only means more potential customers, not less. So what's the downside?