Since the original thread on TIVO suing Echostar for patent infringement seems to be in limbo, awaiting archiving, here's the latest on Forgent vs. Echostar and TIVO vs. Echostar. (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/327239_echostar11.html)

Echostar/Dish beats Forgent. Forgent patent ruled invalid in May, judge denies new trial Aug 9 and orders Forgent to pay Echostar $90K for court costs. Before trial (in May?), DirectTV paid Forgent $8M to settle... dum-de-dum-dum!

TIVO still winning and Echostar sets aside $94M to pay, pending appeal. After U. S. Patent Office review, TIVO retains two jury-awarded claims, needs only one.

For those who didn't read the original thread, TIVO patented a "Timewarping System" that reads like the specs for a HDD DVR and our beloved HDD DVDRs, and they sued Echostar/Dish for using DVRs in their system that used their patented ideas. Forgent had a preceding patent for a "remote tele-conferencing system" that they claimed Echostar also violated. (These are only "the general ideas" and may be wrong... all the many pertinent details are in that other thread.)

They seem to be pruning the threads way down. A quick check shows the oldest "last-post" to a thread, on line, to be less than 1 month old.

If that is the case, then when we tell new posters that their question has been answered in the past and they should do a search, we may well be sending them on a fruitless quest.

Are the pruned threads deleted or are they put in some sort of archival storage. If the latter, can it be accessed via a search tool?

You're right on the potential for a "fruitless search."

The threads that aren't posted to for a previous period of time are "Archived." They recently said they were going to Archive inactive threads not posted to from 6/30/06 to ???, but I haven't seen an actual Archive for those yet. Once posted, the Archives are searchable via their own Search page...and maybe via the Search on the Forum Home Page.

The last Archive for 1/1/05-6/30/06 is here (AVS Forum Archive 2 (http://archive2.avsforum.com/avs-vb/)). There is a previous 12/31/04 archive here (AVS Forum Archives (http://archive.avsforum.com/avs-vb/)).

Those two and any new ones (when actually archived) can be seen in the "AVS Forum Information" (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=13) section at the bottom of the "Forums Home" page. (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/index.php?&) That home page is listed in the top white section of the "Forum Jump" dropdown list and can be accessed from any forum/thread via the dropdown list. The Archives are also in the dropdown list, at the bottom.

They seem to be pruning the threads way down. A quick check shows the oldest "last-post" to a thread, on line, to be less than 1 month old.

If that is the case, then when we tell new posters that their question has been answered in the past and they should do a search, we may well be sending them on a fruitless quest.

Are the pruned threads deleted or are they put in some sort of archival storage. If the latter, can it be accessed via a search tool?

I suggest "testing" the availability of a previous post before recommending that someone search for it. Better yet, provide a link.