CEA Expresses Concerns Over SONICblue Lawsuit

Claim Appears To Pose Attack On Fair Use Rights

5-Nov-01

The following statement was issued by Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) President and CEO Gary Shapiro in response to a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by numerous broadcast networks against SONICblue, a CEA member:""We will be monitoring this lawsuit very closely because it has many troubling implications. This suit does appear to pose a direct attack on consumers' long-established fair use rights to record free over-the-air broadcasting for later viewing. It seems to reflect a strategy of litigating against technology, rather than creating new ways to embrace it. A legitimate concern over Internet retransmission of content must not be used as a Trojan Horse to roll back established recording and fair use rights in the home; nor should it be assumed that consumers are irresponsible in the use of material delivered into their homes.""The device in question is a personal video recorder (PVR) that allows viewers to skip past commercials in stored programming. The plaintiffs now appear to claim that commercial skipping, which consumers have done through a variety of methods (including changing the channel), violates their copyright. Consumers have always been able to fast forward through commercials on current analog VCRs. For years, some VCRs have had a 'commercial skip' function. Getting down to this level of functionality seems to be a direct attack on the Supreme Court decision, in the Betamax case, that staple articles of commerce that are capable of 'substantial non-infringing uses' may legally be distributed to consumers."" For more information about the CEA, visit www.ce.org.

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