Some Cloud-Based Video Rentals Raise Issues

Cablevision Systems Corp. ran into an awful lot of opposition when it originally proposed to use a hosted, remote digital video recorder approach rather than putting hard disk drives into consumer homes. Cablevision ultimately won the right to conduct such operations on a remote basis, though the case had to go to the Supreme Court for resolution.

With remote storage, TV shows are kept on the cable operator's servers instead of a machine inside the customer's home, as systems offered by TiVo Inc. and cable operators currently do. See http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20090629/FREE/906299979.

Another test of an alternative approach to online-delivered video entertainment likely is coming. A company named Zediva buys physical DVD copies of new-release movies , and plays them one-at-a-time on physical DVD players located at the company’s servers; customers rent a player for $2, and the user’s computer acts as the remote.

Only one customer can watch a given DVD at a time, which the company says gives them legal cover since it makes them not really different from a traditional video rental store or Netflix’s DVD-by-mail service.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/03/is-zedivas-new-release-movie-streaming-service-legal.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

The service works with PCs, Macs and Google TV users with Adobe Flash. The issue is that content owners are likely to sue to kill the service. In the past, studios have sued to prevent the sale of videocassette recorders, for example, so the attempt to block new delivery systems is not new.

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