The inventor of the "virtual video recorder" yesterday said he wanted to settle with the entertainment industry after his start-up company received a $10m writ for copyright infringement.

David Simon, 40, a software programmer, closed down his website RecordTV.com, which allowed users to record television shows and watch later at their convenience, after lawyers for a dozen media groups, including Time Warner and Disney, alleged that he was stealing their shows.

"I don't want to be the figurehead or a martyr," Mr Simon told the Guardian. "I am a guy with two kids, a mortgage and a regular job. I just want to settle."

He has become the latest target of a media and entertainment industry keen to destroy all web-based "attacks" on its legal rights. Earlier this month, the US recording industry asked the federal court to shut down online music-sharing service Napster.

This time it is the Motion Picture Association of America which has trained its sights on RecordTV.com.

"David Simon, willingly and knowingly, has built a business based on offering its customers access to valuable, stolen property," said Jack Valenti, president and chief executive of the MPAA.

Last November, Mr Simon used not much more than a cable feed and a few computers equipped with television tuner cards in his Los Angeles home to record episodes of Pokemon on his PC for his daughter.

A few months later, RecordTV.com was born - and by March was attracting some 100,000 users and up to 2m hits a day.

The ease with which Mr Simon produced his website contradicted the industry view that the quality of the internet was not up to "video streaming" popular programmes. However good the technology, it may not be enough to save Mr Simon.

"We have no funding and are just trying to reach a settlement," he said.

The future of the website, which sports a picture of the founder as well as a biography mentioning his love of running 15 miles a day, is based as much on raising some money as pacifying the media moguls.