James Delahunty
29 Apr 2009 20:22
RealNetworks Chief Executive Officer, Rob Glaser, told a court on Tuesday that Real's recently released DVD copying software is for legitimate users and not intended to be used for piracy. "We were both designing our product and marketing our product for legitimate use," he said. "If they didn't want to be legitimate users, there were so many other alternatives they could go to and our product would be an inferior product."
The software had a short life on the market so far, after being pulled days after release by court order in September 2008. This puts the tech industry and Hollywood into a battle of control over digital media again. The studios argue that RealDVD can be used to make copies of rented DVDs as well as personally owned DVDs.
Glaser argued that scofflaws are unlikely to use RealDVD, which costs US$30 and comes with copy control features to make it difficult to disseminate any copies of a DVD. He said that if a user wanted to make a copy of a movie, all they would have to do is "Google DVD Ripper". The studios had their expert witness Robert Schumann on the stand explaining how RealNetworks had deliberately circumvented copy protection mechanisms, particularly ARccOS.
Prosecutors showed email correspondence between RealNetwork engineers and developers with a Kiev, Ukraine, software development company called Rocket Division Software, discussing ways to circumvent the technology. However, Glaser argued that ARccOS is not an "effective" copy protection mechanism, as DVDs can be copied with other software, and gave Kaleidescape as an example.
"Kaleidescape is kind of like a Porsche. It's a beautiful product, but it's very, very expensive," Glaser said. "We thought we could use modern technology to deliver something that's more like a Chevy"