AutoHop case: Dish wins ruling over Fox

Los Angeles

DISH Network Corp's AutoHop service, which lets subscribers watch recorded primetime television programmes with the advertisements taken out, doesn't infringe Fox Broadcasting Co's copyrights, a federal judge said in a tentative decision.

The contested features of Dish's Hopper digital video recorder, which also include the ability to automatically record all four major networks' primetime programming every night, would be fair use under the US Supreme Court's 1984 decision in the Sony Betamax case, US District Judge Dolly Gee said at a hearing on Friday in Los Angeles.