TiVo Slaps EchoStar, Its Customers

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In a recent ruling, a Texas judge found that EchoStar (Dish Network) had purposefully infringed many TiVo DVR copyrights. EchoStar now must pay TiVo nearly $90 million in damages. In addition to the cash settlement, several million Dish Network DVRS will be rendered effectively useless.

Now I can empathize with a company wanting to maintain its intellectual properties and all that noise, but to negatively impact so many innocent consumers is a sad thing. I think a course of action fairer to consumers would have been to assess the valuation of the DVRs in use and then adjust the settlement price accordingly. The damage is already done, so to remove them from the market really does nothing but to make a ridiculous and wasteful statement.

Judge: EchoStar’s DVR Must Be Disabled
[I4U]