Audio Video News

SonicBlue, Inc. has been hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit over its new ReplayTV 4000. The device is a personal video recorder (PVR) that allows users to skip past commercials and send copies of recorded television programs over the Internet to other Replay-equipped viewers. The Silicon Valley company plans to introduce the ReplayTV 4000 early in November.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday, October 31, in a US District Court in Los Angeles by Walt Disney Company (parent of ABC Television), General Electric Co.'s NBC, and cable giant Viacom, Inc., owner of Paramount Pictures and Paramount Home Video. The plaintiffs claim that commercial skipping and program transmission, the 4000's two most advanced and desirable features, are serious copyright violations that will deprive them of substantial revenue by undercutting advertising and subscription fees.

The lawsuit is part of the entertainment industry's attempt to contain what it sees as an epidemic of copyright violations—and potential violations—brought about by the rapid deployment of advanced digital technologies. Two years ago, network television companies threatened to sue ReplayTV and its competitor TiVo, Inc. for failure to obtain licensing agreements for the use of their content. That lawsuit was never filed, and some of the potential plaintiffs in the case became financial backers of Replay technology.

ReplayTV has had a short but fascinating history. The company briefly attempted to produce its own content, but shuttered its production studios after only a few months. When its subscriber network failed to grow at a rate sufficient to sustain the company, ReplayTV decided to get out of the hardware business and concentrate on selling licensing agreements for its technology. Santa Clara–based SonicBlue acquired Replay early this year, and revived the hardware business by adding the new and disputed features.

SonicBlue chairman and CEO Ken Potashner told reporters his company hadn't seen the Disney-NBC-Viacom lawsuit, but said the ReplayTV 4000 merely expanded on fast-forward features already present in video cassette recorders and video-clip forwarding capabilities inherent in almost all email programs. TiVo hasn't included the features in its PVR for fear of antagonizing media companies, according to company attorney Matt Zinn.