Examancer

Over at Public Knowledge there is an in-depth examination of the recent Cablevision ruling and what it means. The appeal won by Cablevision basically confirms the legality of their “network” DVR product. There will be further appears by the plaintiffs (broadcasters), but if the ruling stands then we may soon see a flood of “network” DVRs from cable and IPTV (think TV from your telephone company) providers. Cablevision’s arguments in the case are solid, so I feel there is every reason to believe the ruling will stand and no further injunctions will be granted against similar “network” DVR products. Unless the judge in the case is simply incompetent “network” DVRs should be coming soon.

So, what is a “network” DVR? A “network” DVR (NDVR for the remainder of this post) is a DVR setup where the actual recording takes place in the central office of the service provider, and is then streamed to the user whenever playback of the recorded program is requested. This setup has a huge number advantages over current DVRs for cable/IPTV providers, especially for their wallets. In an NDVR setup the cable company has to spend less money on each device since each “DVR” sent to a customer is really just a network client with no hard drive or other substantial amount of storage. To avoid copyright implications the system currently requires customer to select to record a show ahead of time. The (possible) advantage for customers is that the number of hours/programs recorded with an NDVR, and the number of programs recorded concurrently, would only be limited by what the cable company chose to offer, not by any constraints of the customer’s DVR hardware.

This ruling has already caused Time Warner to bring up the possibility of an NDVR deployment during their most recent conference call. This also means that Comcast could upgrade the software on their “crippled” NDVR setup to offer similar features to customers using existing and forthcoming set-top boxes.

I really like where this case is headed. Copyright cartels, like the RIAA, MPAA, and various broadcaster associations, have long taken advantage of the public’s mostly apathetic look at copyright law and have lobbied and successfully gained ridiculous increases in copyright protections, resulting in a body of copyright law which in no way embodies the intent copyrights laws were originally created. This steady march of power grabbing by these cartels has also led to the destruction of fair use, the virtual elimination of any modern works from the public domain, the proliferation of DRM, and the criminalization of reverse engineering. However, rulings like this one show that the copyright cartels are not the only ones with money who care about fair use and protecting the intent of copyright laws. Sadly, service providers such as Cablevision are fighting the good fight on this issue, but only because of the potential profits they could see if they succeed. Unfortunately, these same companies have not fought nearly as hard against providing customer data to these copyright cartels.

The product being discussed here, the NDVR, is a great idea and I do hope more companies are quick to follow suit. The deployment of these devices would also provide devices capable of streaming ALL content recorded by the cable provider (whether the customer previously asked for it to be recorded or not) should the legal landscape progress enough to allow such a service to exist in the US. This device could also spell trouble for satellite companies, who currently have no way to deliver such a service to the majority of their customers. Both DirectTV and DishNetwork are working on IP-based on-demand delivery systems, but as yet these systems are neither robust nor ubiquitous enough to offer a comparable solution.