Washington - The U.S. Supreme Court has asked the federal government to submit an opinion on Cablevision's (NYSE: CVC) proposed network-based digital video recorder, which drew a lawsuit from movie studios and television networks that is currently under appeal, Reuters reported. The U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that such a device -- which would "store" the programs a user chooses to record on Cablevision's servers, rather than on a hard drive-based device like a TiVo -- would not directly infringe the copyrights of media companies.

The studios and networks argue that Cablevision would essentially be retransmitting their programming without authorization or additional payments, and a federal court initially agreed with them.

Fellow cable operators Comcast and Time Warner have indicated that they would be interested in launching similar remote storage digital video recorder services, but are waiting on the sidelines while the court determines their legality.

One the Justice Dept.'s solicitor general submits the opinion of the federal government, which could take several months, Reuters noted, the Supreme Court will decide whether or not to hear the appeal from the studios and networks.

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/9yywz (Reuters)

http://snipurl.com/9z3cs (DMW previous coverage)

http://www.cablevision.com