Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

Judge weighs testimony in RealDVD copy case

RealNetworks, MPAA now await a ruling on whether the product can be put back on the market

A US federal judge is now considering whether to permit sales of RealDVD, after testimony on a pretrial injunction ended Thursday. That injunction has prevented RealNetworks from selling its DVD software since late September.

Judge Marilyn Patel, who also presided over the Napster case in 2001, will decide whether to keep RealDVD off the market pending the outcome of a lawsuit brought by the movie industry. Plaintiffs' lawyers claim the software can be used to make illegal copies of films and that it violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's prohibition on anti-circumvention technology.

The case has pitted the technology industry against the major movie studios in a fight over who gets to control how digital movies are used.

RealNetworks introduced RealDVD in September, but sales were quickly halted by the injunction granted when movie studios filed suit. The software lets users copy and play movies from their computer hard drives, much the way Apple's iTunes works with CDs. The motion picture studios worry that the software could be misused, however.

DVD copying software such as Handbrake has been widely available since the Content-Scrambling System (CSS) used to copy-protect DVDs was cracked a decade ago, but RealNetworks had been trying to walk the line between enforcing copy protection and giving users a way to store movies on their computers.

In court testimony late last month, RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser had argued that scofflaws are unlikely to use RealDVD, which costs US$30 and prevents users from burning new DVDs of their movies. There are "dozens of products" that DVD pirates could use if they wanted to make illegal copies, he told the court. "All you have to do is Google DVD ripper."

Real was sued by Disney, Paramount, Sony, Twentieth Century Fox, NBC Universal, Warner Brothers, Viacom on Sept. 30, 2008. It filed countersuit the same day. The DVD Copy Control Association, which licenses the CSS system, is also involved in the case. The case is being heard in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco.

After Judge Patel decides whether or not to continue blocking sales of RealDVD, the case will then move toward trial. The judge's ruling could come at any time.

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: Apple, DVD Copy Control Association, Google, Napster, NBC, RealNetworks, Sony, Twentieth Century Fox
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: realdvd, real networks
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • Oracle Business Process Analysis Suite
    Careful analysis and continuous optimization of business processes delivers real competitive advantage. Conversely, a random approach to process design negatively impacts a company’s bottom line. This insight is one reason successful companies adopt business process management (BPM) as a way of aligning their business processes with business and customer requirements. Success with BPM eliminates the gap between business strategy and implementation. Business users are empowered to participate in all stages of the business process lifecycle. Closed-loop integration between modeling, execution, and monitoring enables continuous and holistic business process improvement.
    Learn more »
  • Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Disk-Based Backup/Recovery
    While backup is among the oldest, most performed tasks in the data center, the industry is undergoing significant change as organisations accelerate new technology adoption and show a propensity to implement new solutions, in some cases from vendors that are emerging or new to the backup market.
    Learn more »
  • Award-winning unified information security from Clearswift.
    Fully integrated web and email gateway security solution, providing - protection from inbound threats, policy based encryption, and data loss prevention.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.
Recent comments