Well, we are talking about Dish $300M cache reserve ( by official reports ), so the $1B fine will bring Dish in doggy style position. As to license fee, according court papers it could be just $1.25 per month per DVR. Plus remember how much money Dish accrued by ridiculous the DVR fee $5..7 per DVR per month starting from year 2001 or 2000.
I would be glad to see the real DVR (TiVo license ) fee as $1.25/month.
No, billion dollar payout NOT putting Dish out of existence is NOT doggy style position. An earlier post explains why.
Second, even if Dish were to face a 1 billion dollar judgment of some kind (not likely in the Tivo case), such ultimate award would not have to be in full at one time, but spread out over time with payments, all approved by the court.
Third, the $1.25 per month figure is what the judge is using to calculate Tivo's supposed losses. If this case ends with Dish ultimately losing, then Dish would have to negotiate with Tivo for the monthly charge per customer. That rate could be
anything the sides agree upon (TiVo dictates), or Dish will have to shut down DVR functionality. Should TiVo ultimately prevail, they will have all the leverage, and will seek more--much more-- than $1.25 per month from Dish, even as much as $5 per month, passed on to us. That would put Dish's DVR fee about equal to some cable co's., especially the upgrades to Moxie or TiVo, but still under Fios's high-end $19.95 per month for its best DVR, leaving Direct with the lowest DVR fee.
As for the supposed "real" DVR: none of the jurors for this case interviewed by the press could ever articulate a
technical reason nor say that the technical evidence, such as the computer code that none of them know how to read, led them to conclude that Dish violated TiVo's patents. Instead, they all cited the fact the TiVo knowingly left one of their DVR's with Echostar to allow Dish to use and review it--a strange move by a company supposedly aggressive in protecting its patents--like a sample product. While it is true that Dish never returned the TiVo DVR, and claims they were never able locate it after some time passed, it is also a troubling fact that TiVo, notorious for vigorously protecting it patents and products, never asked for their DVR back, nor inquired as to what Dish had done with it, either. Can one see the method to TiVo's supposed madness? TiVo knew what it was doing, all along. Dish's only stupid mistake was allowing TiVo to leave it behind after their meeting, but at that time, one could imagine, both parties were all smiles then. Jurors cited this "DVR left at Echostar" fact as their prime evidence that Dish is in violation of TiVo's patents.
Furthermore, TiVo is the master of marketing. They have even have you believing that they really did invent the DVR when, in fact, RePlay TV was first, with TiVo and Dish Network's old DishPlayer 7000--using software by Microsoft--all having come to market about the same time. So, there are 3 inventors of the DVR.
= cheesy smile and don't think you'd really want to give it away (though they are only going for about $40-80 on ebay if they sell).
