Cablevision gets OK for DVR system

In a decision sure to affect millions of cable television subscribers, a federal appeals court gave a green light to Cablevision Systems Corp.’s rollout of a remote-storage digital video recorder system.

In overturning a lower court ruling that had blocked the service, the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the judge wrongly concluded that Cablevision, rather than its customers, would be making copies of programs, thereby violating copyright laws.

Cablevision’s system was challenged by a group of Hollywood studios that claimed the remote-storage DVR service would amount to an unauthorized rebroadcast of their programs.