Fox Broadcasting Company, Inc. v. Dish Network L.L.C.

Dish Network offers two marsupial-inspired products: the “Hopper,” which “hops” over commercials, and a companion box known as a “Joey.” Fox Broadcasting Company claims these products are contractually out of bounds and constitute copyright infringement. The district court denied the broadcaster’s request for a preliminary injunction. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1292 , and we affirm.

I

Plaintiffs Fox Broadcasting Company, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., and Fox Television Holdings, Inc. (collectively, “Fox”) own the copyrights to television shows that air on the Fox television network. Its primetime lineup includes shows such as Glee, Bones, The Simpsons, and Family Guy. Fox contracts with cable and satellite television service providers to retransmit Fox’s broadcast signal for the customers of these providers, known as multichannel video programming distributors. Some such distributors also offer Fox programming via video on demand. Fox separately licenses its shows to companies such as Hulu, Apple, Netflix, and Amazon, which sell Fox programs online or stream them over the Internet.

One distributor that Fox contracts with is Dish Network, the…