The Mercury News reports a significant setback in the efforts by ReplayTV owners to protect their fair use rights (Judge stalls effort against ReplayTV). A small number of ReplayTV owners have tried to intervene in the lawsuit that various Hollywood studios and television networks have brought against ReplayTV to prohibit the 30-second skip button and television file sharing. In the case, Hollywood has claimed that users of these functions are copyright infringers. This is necessary in order to claim that ReplayTV is guilty of contributory copyright infringement (and should thus be banned). However, no consumers are parties to case and their rights may not be properly protected in the lawsuit. Unfortunately, the judge has issued a stay for the moment, and it does not look like she will let consumers join the case. Apparently the judge believes that the issues in the case can be resolved without consumer input. This is absurd, since one of the main controversies is certain to be whether file sharing or 30 second skipping by consumers constitutes infringement in the first place. We will link to the judge's ruling as soon as it is available.
The efforts of the consumers have been supported and organized by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. You can read more at the EFF's page here (ReplayTV Owners Defend Right to Digital VCRs: Hollywood Tries to Skip Over Customers' Concerns).
Robert Schwartz, representing the studios, said that "this case has been pending for eight months, and we have never sued these people. . . . We didn't even want to know who they are." Well, why don't the studios end the lawsuit by settling with the consumers? If Hollywood is uninterested in suing consumers, it would be a very easy thing for them to sign an agreement stating just that.
More information at C|Net News (ReplayTV customers' case on hold).