Dish Community Can't Make Insurance coverage Firm Cowl Copyright Claims

Dish Network Corp.’s insurer had no duty to defend it in a copyright infringement case brought by the four major U.S. television networks, a Manhattan federal court ruled.

Dish is in the business of “broadcasting” under ACE American Insurance Co.’s policy, excluding it from ACE’s advertising injury coverage, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York said Dec. 23.

The networks sued Dish in 2012 for breach of contract and copyright infringement based on a feature in Dish’s Hopper DVR that “automatically and completely skipped advertisements within the television networks’ copyrighted works.” The parties eventually settled,…