Fox Pitches Ninth Circuit on Dish Injunction

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Fox has been seeking a preliminary injunction and argues the district court was wrong, and in fact abused its discretion, in not finding Dish's allegedly infringing AutoHop DVR service culpable of irreparable harm, and denying the injunction, as did the Ninth Circuit on appeal in January 2014.

At issue are PrimeTime Anytime and AutoHop, key features of the Hopper Whole-Home HD DVR. Fox, which sued for breach of contract and copyright infringement, appealed the denial of the injunction, and argument was held on July 7 in the circuit's Pasadena courtroom.

Fox was looking to use broadcasters' recent victory in the Aereo case in the Supreme Court to buttress its argument, including pointing out that Dish had argued that it was merely an equipment provider, an Aereo argument that the Supremes rejected. It also pointed out the Supremes had reflected Aereo's argument (which it said was Dish's as well) that a performance was not public under the Copyright Act if each sub watches a unique stream.


Fox Pitches Ninth Circuit on Dish Injunction