A Monday U.S. Supreme Court decision rejecting a bid by Dish Network to appeal a ruling in the TiVo suit shifts the legal battle back to a proposed injunction. Dish petitioned the court in August, arguing that the appeals court decision would have a “significantly detrimental” effect on how patent infringement cases are litigated by barring defendants from introducing evidence of inconsistencies. Now Dish Networks must pay TiVo $104 million escrowed and to be released “in the next few days,” Dish said. The sum represents the $74 million a federal jury awarded TiVo in 2006 for patent infringement, plus interest. At the heart of the case is the so-called time warp patent that describes a way to move compressed digital multimedia programs to a storage device in a set-top box. The method lets users pause, fast forward and rewind live TV programs, while recording another program. U.S. District Judge David Folsom stayed an injunction pending the outcome of an appeals court decision. The appeals court ruled in February that Dish infringed software elements of TiVo DVR patents, but not those involving hardware. TiVo filed a motion for contempt, seeking to enforce an injunction that would bar Dish from selling satellite receivers/DVRs that infringe its patent. TiVo “remains confident” that Folsom will enforce the injunction and award more damages for Dish’s “continued infringement” of the time warp patent, TiVo said in a statement. Dish claimed to have developed DVR software “without precedent” that didn’t infringe the TiVo patent, deploying the software in October 2006, Dish said. Attorneys for TiVo and Dish argued motions for an injunction and contempt citation Sept. 4 before Folsom in U.S. District Court, Texarkana. A decision is pending.
A Monday U.S. Supreme Court decision rejecting a bid by Dish Network to appeal a ruling in the TiVo suit shifts the legal battle back to a proposed injunction. Dish petitioned the court in August, arguing that the appeals court decision would have a “significantly detrimental” effect on how patent infringement cases are litigated by barring defendants from introducing evidence of inconsistencies. Now Dish Networks must pay TiVo $104 million escrowed and to be released “in the next few days,” Dish said. The sum represents the $74 million a federal jury awarded TiVo in 2006 for patent infringement, plus interest. At the heart of the case is the so-called time warp patent that describes a way to move compressed digital multimedia programs to a storage device in a set-top box. The method lets users pause, fast forward and rewind live TV programs, while recording another program. U.S. District Judge David Folsom stayed an injunction pending the outcome of an appeals court decision. The appeals court ruled in February that Dish infringed software elements of TiVo DVR patents, but not those involving hardware. TiVo filed a motion for contempt, seeking to enforce an injunction that would bar Dish from selling satellite receivers/DVRs that infringe its patent. TiVo “remains confident” that Folsom will enforce the injunction and award more damages for Dish’s “continued infringement” of the time warp patent, TiVo said in a statement. Dish claimed to have developed DVR software “without precedent” that didn’t infringe the TiVo patent, deploying the software in October 2006, Dish said. Attorneys for TiVo and Dish argued motions for an injunction and contempt citation Sept. 4 before Folsom in U.S. District Court, Texarkana. A decision is pending.
British Telecom’s marketing of its Webwise behavioral- targeting trial to customers (CD Oct 1 p11) isn’t meant to deceive anyone about what they're signing up for, a spokesman told us. The invitation screen served to selected customers portrays the service first as protecting them against phishing and then as providing more relevant ads. “We are in no way attempting to pull the wool over their eyes with this,” the spokesman said. The Webwise site, which comes up in the browsers of customers chosen for the trial offer, includes much background information on the system, he said. “You have to appreciate that not everybody wants to read in incredible detail” how targeting works. Most people don’t worry about Google storing their search queries for months, so BT doesn’t think customers will feel the provider is trying to snooker them into signing up for a monitoring service offering more relevant ads, he said. A “handful of ultra-vocal protestors” in the U.K. have objected to BT’s deal with targeting provider Phorm, and for reasons unrelated to marketing methods, the spokesman said. BT has no reason to explain to customers that the aim of targeting is revenue, any more than the company should have to tell customers that it offers broadband service to make money, the spokesman said. The U.K. broadband market differs markedly from its U.S. counterpart, with “hundreds” of ISPs competing for customers and also running on very tight profit margins, so it shouldn’t surprise Britons that providers would look for new revenue streams, he said. BT will continue testing the system for at least four weeks, then pause to study its technical performance and customer reaction, before asking all customers to sign up, he said. The trial’s “primary purpose is not a customer referendum.”
British Telecom’s marketing of its Webwise behavioral- targeting trial to customers (WID Oct 1 p7) isn’t meant to deceive anyone about what they're signing up for, a spokesman told us. The invitation screen served to selected customers portrays the service first as protecting them against phishing and then as providing more relevant ads. “We are in no way attempting to pull the wool over their eyes with this,” the spokesman said. The Webwise site, which comes up in the browsers of customers chosen for the trial offer, includes much background information on the system, he said. “You have to appreciate that not everybody wants to read in incredible detail” how targeting works. Most people don’t worry about Google storing their search queries for months, so BT doesn’t think customers will feel the provider is trying to snooker them into signing up for a monitoring service offering more relevant ads, he said. A “handful of ultra-vocal protestors” in the U.K. have objected to BT’s deal with targeting provider Phorm, and for reasons unrelated to marketing methods, the spokesman said. BT has no reason to explain to customers that the aim of targeting is revenue, any more than the company should have to tell customers that it offers broadband service to make money, the spokesman said. The U.K. broadband market differs markedly from its U.S. counterpart, with “hundreds” of ISPs competing for customers and also running on very tight profit margins, so it shouldn’t surprise Britons that providers would look for new revenue streams, he said. BT will continue testing the system for at least four weeks, then pause to study its technical performance and customer reaction, before asking all customers to sign up, he said. The trial’s “primary purpose is not a customer referendum.”
Combining TiVo’s DVR software into Nero’s new multimedia application suite caps the company’s long effort to tighten ties with PCs. The Nero 9 has tools for multimedia playback, editing, ripping, burning and backup and for the first time adds LiquidTV-TiVo PC. The DVR software will be sold in a $199 package that includes Hauppauge Digital’s 950Q tuner card, TiVo remote, portable antenna and one year of TiVo service. A LiquidTV-PC software-only version ($99) also is being offered by Nero’s Web site with a free one-year TiVo subscription. After the first year, the TiVo service costs $99 monthly. The tuner card enables an SD connection through composite or S-Video jacks to a cable or satellite box to access content from TV service providers. It also can receive free over-the-air broadcasts, including HD programs. The new software handles recording and transcoding video to formats viewable on PCs, iPods, iPhones and Sony PSPs. Or programming can be burned to a DVD. The TiVo interface handles the playback, pause and replay functions, the electronic program guide and scheduling program recording. The PC must remain on to schedule programming. LiquidTV also has an option for a KidZone interface that gives children access to educational and kid- appropriate programming. It doesn’t link to TiVo’s alliances with Amazon on Demand and YouTube. TiVo’s pact with Nero caps an effort the DVR service provider launched in 2005 to make its software compatible with PCs. At the time, TiVo was working with Intel to align its TiVoToGo software with the chipmaker’s ViiV technology (CED Dec 1/05 p2). TiVo subscribers were to be able to transfer programs from their Series2 DVRs to ViiV-equipped PCs. Content stored on the TiVo DVR also was to be downloadable to ViiV-enabled devices for play back on media adapters. Meanwhile, TiVo is testing a new interface for its DVR service integrating picture-in- picture, including ads. It also allows for display of individual user “favorites.”
LONDON -- Sling Media is close to introducing internationally the SlingCatcher, which takes video from a PC and sends it to a TV set across the room or across the world. Without breaking DRM, the SlingCatcher punches through the rules that restrict “catchup” TV viewing and recording, its developer told us at a sneak preview. The SlingCatcher works on its own or with a current Slingbox that sends home TV over the Internet for remote viewing on a PC. The SlingCatcher grabs the proprietary encrypted Slingbox network signal and converts it to a conventional TV signal for display on any set. The network can be in a home or over the Internet. That means the SlingCatcher can take TV signals from the living room and show them on a bedroom TV or capture living room signals anywhere in the world and show them on a local TV. The SlingCatcher comes with a remote that sends control signals back through the network, to switch or pause the source TV. Used with Sling Projector software that can be installed on a networked PC, the SlingCatcher works on its own to grab video as the PC displays it and stream it to a TV. The software can format the signal from the PC so that only the video window appears on the TV screen, with playback buttons and tool bars removed. This way, TV “catch-up” services like YouTube, the BBC’s iPlayer or Sky’s Skyplayer can be watched full screen on a TV rather than as a window on a PC screen. In the London demonstration we attended, BBC motor-sports show Top Gear from the broadcaster’s iPlayer was upscaled to 720p to fill a 42-inch HDTV screen with slightly soft but otherwise very acceptable pictures. “In essence” there’s nothing to stop a user from connecting the SlingCatcher’s AV outputs to a DVD or other recording device, and capturing the video signal coming from the PC, Stuart Collingwood, Sling’s vice president for Europe told us. This would let a user record catch-up TV programs protected by DRM that’s intended to prevent recording on a PC -- and limit viewing life to, for example, seven days after transmission. “We are not breaking DRM,” Collingwood said. “And we don’t re-broadcast. It’s a point-to-point service.” Pricing for the SlingCatcher set-top and the separate downloadable software will be released Oct. 9, Collingwood said.
LONDON -- Sling Media is close to introducing internationally the SlingCatcher, which takes video from a PC and sends it to a TV set across the room or across the world. Without breaking DRM, the SlingCatcher punches through the rules that restrict “catchup” TV viewing and recording, its developer told us at a sneak preview.
New USB plug-in DTV tuners for PCs will hit stores Sept. 21 from Pinnacle, the company said Monday. Its HD Mini Stick tuner/demodulators connect to USB ports on notebook and desktop PCs and Macs and are about the size of a flash drive -- a bit smaller than three previous USB tuners from the Avid division. They come with a small, high-gain telescopic antenna, are powered through the PC’s USB port, and support terrestrial DTV as well as unencrypted ClearQAM digital cable for HDTV or SDTV at resolutions up to 1080i. During a recent demonstration in our Manhattan office, Pinnacle’s USB tuners pulled in all available DTV stations with perfect clarity and sound -- in an environment where NTSC reception is limited to grainy reception of only a handful of stations because of multipath conditions. The MSRP for the tuners is $119 for a Windows-only version and $129 for one that adds reception for Apple’s Macintosh laptops and desktops. Each comes with a remote control and software that enables a computer’s hard drive to act as a DVR with time-shifting and the capability to record, pause or rewind live TV.
New plug-in DTV tuners for PCs from Pinnacle will hit stores Sept. 21, the company said Monday. Its HD Mini Stick tuner/demodulators connect to USB ports on notebook and desktop PCs and Macs and are about the size of a flash drive -- a bit smaller than three previous USB tuners from the Avid division. They come with a small, high-gain telescopic antenna and are powered through the PC’s USB port. They support terrestrial DTV as well as unencrypted ClearQAM digital cable for HDTV or SDTV at resolutions up to 1080i. During a recent demonstration in our New York office, where NTSC reception is limited to a handful of grainy stations because of multipath conditions, Pinnacle’s USB tuners pulled in all available DTV stations perfectly. The MRSP for the tuners is $119 for a Windows-only version and $129 for one that adds reception for Apple’s Macintosh laptops and desktops. Each comes with a remote control and software allowing a computer’s hard drive to act as a DVR, allowing time-shifting and recording, pausing and rewinding live TV.
TiVo is leading the way in getting Internet programming to TV sets, CEO Tom Rogers said Wednesday at a Kaufman Bros. conference. About 85 percent of TiVo’s new HD customers immediately connect their devices to broadband, he said. “You can now get 30,000 titles through TiVo directly to your television set. Compare that to the average few hundred movies through cable video on demand.”