The customers no longer had grounds to sue, said the court.
The five individuals were represented by civil liberties group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which filed suit in Los Angeles in June 2002. The suit asked the court to rule that their use of the ReplayTV device is legal under copyright law.
The suit was in response to an earlier legal action by dozens of Hollywood movie and television studios, which had sued ReplayTV's then-owner, SonicBlue, for making and distributing personal video recorders. The action claimed that consumers' use of such devices constitutes copyright violation and sought a broad injunction that would prevent the further use, support, or sale of the machines.
SonicBlue went into bankruptcy and ReplayTV was bought by Digital Networks North America. The new product offered by Digital Networks did not include the two features that resulted in the alleged copyright violation. As a result, in August last year the entertainment industry agreed not to go ahead with its lawsuit.
This suit was formally dismissed by the Court on Friday, and this has had a knock-on effect on the EFF case. District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper ruled that because the studios were no longer suing over alleged copyright violation, there was no longer any "case or controversy" upon which the ReplayTV customers could sue the industry. The claims, said Cooper, are "moot".
The judge also refused to permit the EFF to turn the suit into a class action.