Dish Network prevails in latest court decision

Dish Network won a legal victory Monday when a federal appeals court said that customers could continue to use the features in Hopper DVRs to watch live TV remotely and transfer programs to devices for viewing on the go.

After the Supreme Court's decision in the Aereo case last month, Fox asked the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to stop Dish Network from streaming its network content over the Internet to subscribers. Along with ABC, CBS and NBC, Fox sued Dish two years ago to stop the ad-skipping feature on its Hopper digital video recorders.

Fox argued that Dish's streaming of the network's content is unauthorized, similar to Aereo's violations that the Supreme Court cited.

Dish maintained that its Hopper DVRs constituted an entirely different setup because they are physically in subscribers' homes, whereas Aereo let subscribers use a cloud DVR.

The appeals court decided against Fox's request for an injunction, but the case continues to move through the legal process.

'We will continue to vigorously defend consumers' right to choice and control over their viewing experience,' said Dish executive vice president and general counsel Stanton Dodge, in a statement.

The Dish Hopper records up to six channels simultaneously. The killer feature, however, is the ability to skip over commercials.(Photo: Dish Network)

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