Dish Sues Fitness Home Streaming Companies

[eddie willers]

Before I got my first satellite box (Dishplayer) I had a wonderful box from a company called StarSight (made by Magnavox). It was a cable box that created an electronic on screen guide. You ran an IR bug to your VCR and all you did to record was highlight the show and click.

When I got my WebTV/Dish Dishplayer, it had logos from various companies and it had the StarSight logo printed on the side of the box. So the first electronic guide I ever saw had signed a license with Dish (and/or Microsoft) so my learning curve to record was zero.

StarSight got bought by Gemstar (license holder of the far inferior VCR+ system) and it's been downhill ever since.

 

[DishSubLA]

Before I got my first satellite box (Dishplayer) I had a wonderful box from a company called StarSight (made by Magnavox). It was a cable box that created an electronic on screen guide. You ran an IR bug to your VCR and all you did to record was highlight the show and click.

When I got my WebTV/Dish Dishplayer, it had logos from various companies and it had the StarSight logo printed on the side of the box. So the first electronic guide I ever saw had signed a license with Dish (and/or Microsoft) so my learning curve to record was zero.

StarSight got bought by Gemstar (license holder of the far inferior VCR+ system) and it's been downhill ever since.

The original DishPlayer 7000/7100--IIRC those model numbers--were hardware by Echostar and software by Microsoft, and MS had the source code, so any changes or bug fixes HAD to be done at/by Microsoft. Whenever there was a software problem, Dish has the most difficult time getting MS to act in a timely manner. Dish would get slammed with complaints and MS would seem to move slowly in any fixes, even to the point of almost ignoring Dish/Echostar. This horrible arrangement led to Echostar developing its own in-house DVR: the extremely basic DishPlayer 501, and this is what TiVo would years later sue Echostar over (well all the 5XX and 6XX DVR's anyway) at a time when TiVo was about to go under financially, but Tom Rogers does have to be given credit for using a now standard tactic of suing for patent infringement when there really was none. FWIW, I personally believe that Echostar had a settlement on the table--the very settlement that TiVo would desperately accept years later--for TiVo at least by time of trial, but Tom Rogers was going "gun to the head" result that would allow him to force Echostar to pay huge for infringement and FORCE Echostar to pay for all subsequent uses of the supposed TiVo patents or even force Echostar to accept a TiVo branded product that TiVo would make lots of money from the fees.

Of course, none of that happened (Echostar even had a back-up plan to remove all the "offending" DVR's and replace them with ViP's), and the legal team's brilliant advice of actions for Echostar was something I, and almost nobody ever saw coming until near the end when they played that card. What a huge setback for TiVo after all those years of its own legal fees drowning TiVo finances to be denied the big prize. But, Tom took a much less lucrative settlement, but all the other companies he sued ended up settling as well. It was cheaper and easier to settle with TiVo and not have to go through what Echostar did and have to deal with that lawless Eastern District in Texas where Plaintiffs BUY their favorable rulings by spreading cash all over the little town. That judge has a racket where big law firms enrich his town, and the jurors, who happen to live in the area, in these patent cases base their vote on who has spread the cash around the most, and that is usually the plaintiff. Even the late Justice Scalia referred to the Eastern District of Texas as a "Rouge Court." That Judge in Eastern District of Texas is like 97% in favor of plaintiffs. It truly is anything but lawful. And he is among the MOST admonished--routinely admonished by higher courts--judges in all the Federal Courts.

 

[SandFarmer]

Did Charlie fall on his head or something?

He either fell off or came in last on his Pelton and the instructor shamed him in front of the class.

 

[eddie willers]

He either fell off or came in last on his Pelton and the instructor shamed him in front of the class.

Charlie better get his fast as Peloton in the hot seat for killing a kid.