Deserve Neither Liberty nor Safety."- Ben Franklin
Mon May 13, 5:41 PM ET
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (Reuters) - SONICblue Inc. on Monday moved to overturn a court order for it to spy on users of its digital recording devices and share detailed viewing data with major studios and television networks, saying the order would violate privacy rights.
Santa Clara-based SONICblue called the May 2 order from Central District Court Magistrate Charles Eick "breathtaking and unprecedented" and said the directive to track what television viewers watch "violates consumers' privacy rights, including those guaranteed by the First and Fourth Amendments."
The plaintiffs in the case, including film studios Paramount, Universal, The Walt Disney Co. and Metro- Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. , as well as TV networks CBS, ABC and NBC, have argued they need the data, including details on what commercials viewers skip and what files they transfer across the Internet, to build their copyright infringement case against SONICblue.
"The information that has been ordered to be collected and disclosed to plaintiffs is at the core of consumers' expectations of privacy," said SONICblue, which in the past has acknowledged it has the right to collect such data under its sales contracts, but chooses not to do so.
At the heart of the matter is the company's ReplayTV (news - web sites) 4000 product, which allows viewers to digitally record programs and, if they wish, to skip over commercials. The device also has a high-speed Internet port that allows users to download film files.
The studios and networks claim those features threaten to deprive them of the means of paying for their programs since they allow ads to be cut out and premium programs on subscription services, such as HBO, to be forwarded to non- subscribers.
SONICblue also protested against the order for effectively forcing it to redesign its product for the express purpose of collecting data to be used against it.
Barring an outright reversal, the company asked for three modifications to the order, including:
-- allowing consumers to opt in or out of the collection;
-- allowing data to be collected only in aggregate and not person-to-person, form; and
-- making any surveillance narrow in scope and limited in duration.
If its appeals are denied, SONICblue will have 60 days from May 2 to design new software that will allow it to track what its customers are watching.
The company said the modifications will require about $400,000 in development costs and will take four months to complete without error.
The lawsuit is part of a broader campaign by the studios, and TV networks to a lesser extent, to combat what they say is video piracy that costs them billions of dollars each year in lost sales in advertising and subscription-based programming.