Dish Hopper (Photo : Reuters)
21st Century Fox has lost yet another battle in order to suppress some features of the Dish Hopper set-top box. The copyright claim against the Dish Hopper was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee of the Los Angeles circuit court, according to Reuters.
The ongoing carriage dispute has had a harsh effect on the end-consumers, early January 2015 more than 14 million satellite-TV customers end up losing their Fox News Channel after Fox and Dish has not reached an agreement regarding programming fees. According to a Nielsen Media report, Fox News viewers dropped to 939,000 compared to 1.68 million recorded a week before the takedown.
The biggest issue brought up by Fox is the use of Dish Sling technology which gives its consumers to remotely access their TV content from any Internet-ready devices like smartphones, tablets and personal computers.
Another feature in question is the Hopper Transfer that allows consumers with iPad to freely transfer their DVR recordings to their iPad without the use of an internet connection which allows consumers to watch offline videos and recording anywhere.
In an official statement released by the company, Dish said, "Consumers are the winners today, as the court sided with them on the key copyright issues in this case."
The 63-page decision was released on Jan. 12.
The court battle between Fox and Dish Network has been going on for more than three years. During the course of the litigation, Dish Network has imposed several channel takedowns in order to create a leverage that could balance the demands of Fox.
Fox first filed its legal actions against Dish Network on May 2012, using the grounds of copyright violation. Fox labeled the Dish Primetime Anytime feature as a "bootleg broadcast video-on-demand service", but was dismissed by the judge, according to PCmag.
On the other hand, Dish Network was also mentioned by the Federal Trade Commission for violating the commissions Telemarketing Sales Rule.
