EchoStar doesn’t believe it infringed any TiVo patents, a spokesman said after TiVo said Mon. it had filed suit against EchoStar charging it had violated the “Time Warp” patent that allows users to pause live TV. The spokesman didn’t say whether EchoStar planned to file a countersuit, but said the company “intend[s] to defend vigorously against the lawsuit.”

EchoStar doesn’t believe it infringed on any TiVo patents, a spokesman said after TiVo said Mon. had filed suit against EchoStar charging it had violated the “Time Warp” patent that allows users to pause live TV (CD Jan 6 p8). The spokesman didn’t say whether EchoStar planned to file a countersuit, but said the company “intend[s] to defend vigorously against the lawsuit.” Separately, An EchoStar spokesman confirmed reports that the company had sued Viacom in U.S. Dist. Court, San Francisco, over CBS rebroadcast rights, including coverage of the Super Bowl Feb. 1. But he said the companies had reached a temporary agreement to continue negotiations through next week. EchoStar said Viacom had conditioned the agreement on EchoStar’s carriage of additional programming. “We consider that to be TV extortion, saying we [can’t run] the Super Bowl… unless we agree to carry other channels. We think that’s part of the public airwaves at this point,” the spokesman said. The company is pleased that an agreement was reached for additional negotiation time, he said: “It should allow us to hold meaningful conversations.” An industry official said it was unlikely EchoStar timed the filing of its lawsuit to coincide with DirecTV’s announcement that it had reached an agreement with CBS (CD Jan 8 p10).

RealNetworks said it was rolling out RealPlayer 10 software that features a multichannel codec and couples support for MPEG-4 compression with the national debut of an online music store.

TiVo said it filed a patent infringement lawsuit against EchoStar Mon., alleging the latter had violated its “Time Warp” patent. The patent covers TiVo technology for recording a programing during playback of another, and certain technologies applicable to live TV -- pausing, fast- forwarding, rewinding, etc. TiVo said the suit was filed in a U.S. Dist. Court in Tex. that it didn’t identify. “We've invested in building a comprehensive patent portfolio to protect our intellectual property and… we will be aggressive in protecting those assets,” TiVo CEO Michael Ramsay said.

Charter announced an agreement to buy Explorer 8000 digital set-top boxes from Scientific-Atlanta. Charter declined to say how many boxes it was buying or to disclose terms. Charter Dir.- Mktg. for New Products Page Shaper said the S-A Explorer 8000 would enable the rollout of Charter digital video recording (DVR) service in the L.A. area, the first in a series of deployments throughout the country. Shaper said the Explorer 8000 was equipped with a hard drive that would store and play back up to 50 hours of programs. Charter DVR provides picture-in-picture capability and enables customers to record 2 different channels simultaneously while viewing a previously recorded program. Consumers also can stop, rewind and pause a show in progress.

Charter announced an agreement to buy Explorer 8000 digital set-top boxes from Scientific-Atlanta. Charter declined to say how many boxes it was buying or to disclose terms. Charter Dir.-Mktg. for New Products Page Shaper said the S-A Explorer 8000 would enable the rollout of Charter digital video recording (DVR) service in the L.A. area, the first in a series of deployments throughout the country. Shaper said the Explorer 8000 was equipped with a hard drive that would store and play back up to 50 hours of programs. Charter DVR provides picture-in-picture capability and enables customers to record 2 different channels simultaneously while viewing a previously recorded program. Consumers also can stop, rewind and pause a show in progress.

Cable operators, eager to catch up with DBS providers, have begun scurrying to offer PVR services in large and small markets, with major MSOs either already deploying cable-PVR set- top combos en masse or having unveiled plans to start doing so soon.

Cable operators, anxious to catch up with DBS providers, now are scurrying to offer digital video recorder (DVR) service in large and small markets throughout the U.S. Over the last few months, major MSOs either have started deploying the combined cable-DVR set-tops en masse or have unveiled plans to start doing so soon.

A federal judge ruled Thurs. that Internet voice service between computers, or between computers and phones, couldn’t be regulated by the states. U.S. Dist. Judge Michael Davis, Minneapolis, classified Vonage’s offering as an information service and therefore concluded that Minn. PUC regulation had been preempted by Congress in its protection of nascent Internet activity. The opinion was hailed by Vonage and by voice-over Internet protocol (VoIP) promoter Jeff Pulver, but was criticized by NARUC and the Media Access Project (MAP).

Freshman Sen. Coleman (R-Minn.) used his chairmanship of Senate Governmental Affairs Investigations Subcommittee Tues. to take RIAA to task over its subpoenas of suspected file sharers.