Industry analysts predict a big leap in the number of video-on-demand customers if they can watch their favorite shows without commercials and without the need for special recording equipment.
In their petition to the Supreme Court, lawyers for the TV networks and film studios said the appeals ruling was wrong as matter of law. Unless it is reversed, they said, it will have "sweeping implications in the digital age, particularly for automated and on-demand services." The ruling, they said, "provides a blueprint for new automated business seeking windfall profits by providing copyrighted works to consumers" without paying a licensing fee to the copyright owners.
