Remote controlled.

• Author: Fritz, Ben

VIEWERS BEWARE: ACCORDING to Hollywood; if you've ever hit fast forward on a VCR or used the mute button on a TV, you're a thief. "Your contract with the network when you get the show is you're going to watch the spots," Jamie Kellner, the CEO of Turner Broadcasting, Said in a recent interview with trade publication Cable World. "Otherwise you couldn't get the show on an ad-supported basis. Any time you skip a commercial ... you're actually stealing the programming."

Crazy though Kellner's argument may sound, it's not too far off from the one being made in a lawsuit against ReplayTV, a company which, like its better-known competitor TiVo, makes digital video recorders for home use. While these products have been slow to penetrate the market, ReplayTV's new line of recorders includes a feature that has Hollywood up in arms: With the simple push of a button, you'll never have to watch commercials on a recorded program again. Ever.

To the plaintiffs in this case, which include all six broadcast networks, several cable channels (including those run by Turner), and most major entertainment conglomerates, commercials are not just their chosen method to generate revenue, but something viewers have a responsibility to watch. While they're willing to cut a little slack to those of us who have gotten up to relieve ourselves during a commercial break--"There's a certain amount of tolerance for going to the bathroom," says Kellner--Hollywood executives apparently believe that turning on an episode of "Friends" contractually binds us to sit through the latest spot for McDonalds. This argument, however, didn't fly back in 1984, when the Supreme Court's Betamax decision gave consumers the right to record programs (including the right to fast-forward through them). So this time around, Hollywood has rested its legal case on the qualitative difference between ReplayTV's "Commercial Skip" and a fast forward or mute button. While the latter two can potentially be used for all sorts of harmless purposes, they argue--like skipping ahead on a home video or turning the sound off on a show to answer the phone--the ReplayTV technology exists only to block commercials. ReplayTV thus alters network content--a violation of copyright law, says Ron Rauchberg, an attorney representing the plaintiffs. "They're making copies of our material and delivering it to consumers so that they can make money by cutting out...