Cablevision Loses Suit on Network DVRs: Movie Studios Still Don’t Get It

Last week, a judge ruled against Cablevision in a suit filed by Hollywood studios and broadcasters who claimed that Cablevision’s new network based digital video recording device would have broken copyright laws.

Last year, Cablevision announced plans to network digital video recorders which would have allowed cable customers to be able to record and playback shows through a regular cable box without the need to have a DVR cable box with a hard drive.

In the suit, Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, CNN and Turner Broadcasting System claimed that Cablevision’s service would amount to an additional re-broadcast of their programs which they have not given permission for. Cablevision argued that since the the customer was in control of the recording and playback of the programs, and not Cablevision, that the devices were compliant.

Once again, the movie studios refuse to let customers decide how and when they consume content. When are these content companies going to realize that if they don’t give customers control, they won’t grow their business? The major studios keep complaining about the decline of DVD sales, the decline of theater ticket sales and the problem of illegal movie downloads, yet their own greed is keeping them from growing their business since they refuse to listen to what consumers want. Content isn’t king, the customer is king.