Fox and Dish have settled a years-long copyright dispute over several Dish viewing features, including the Hopper ad-skipping DVR, Slingbox, and PrimeTime Anywhere streaming technology.

Not much detail is available at this point, but Dish has said it will disable ad-skipping powers on all Fox programming until seven days after a program airs. The companies released a joint statement today, which reads:

Fox Networks Group and DISH Network L.L.C. have reached an agreement resulting in the dismissal of all pending litigation between the two companies, including disputes over Slingbox technology and the AutoHop, PrimeTime Anytime and Transfers features. As part of the settlement, DISH’s AutoHop commercial-skipping functionality will not be available for owned and affiliated FOX stations until seven days after a program first airs.

Fox and NBCUniversal both sued Dish in 2012, saying that the ad-skipping could destroy "the fundamental underpinnings of the broadcast television ecosystem." In the lawsuit, they said because the ad-skipping tech involves the creation of an unauthorized copy, it violates copyright law.

Fox makes its own content available, with ads, eight days after broadcast, on authorized Internet sites like Fox.com and Hulu.com.

The Hopper drove ahead and won awards at CES, even as Fox failed to win an immediate injunction. In early 2015, US District Judge Dolly Gee issued a mixed ruling (PDF), finding that Dish's features don't infringe copyright but that Dish had violated some contracts and infringed Fox's copyrights when it made copies of programming to do Quality Assurance testing. The judge found those QA copies violated Fox copyrights even though they were never distributed to customers.

The Hollywood Reporter notes that Disney and CBS settled similar disputes in March and December of 2014, respectively. The Disney settlement, which also covers the ABC and ESPN content it owns, calls for a three-day ban on ad-skipping. CBS, like Fox, gets a week-long hiatus from ad-skipping.

Overall, the outcome isn't great for Dish or consumers at large. Not only were networks able to use copyright to knock out a brash, well-funded startup like Aereo, but broadcaster Fox was able to cripple a product made by Dish—a company that already pays for Fox's programming.

The result also suggests that efficient ad-skipping, which has been technologically possible since the beginning of digital recording, will continue to be a no-go. Like the Aereo battle, the Hopper settlement is one more data point showing that TV networks have a powerful legal veto over just about any streaming or re-broadcast of their content.