James Delahunty
12 Aug 2009 19:28
A federal Judge has stung RealNetworks badly by issuing a preliminary injunction preventing the company from selling its RealDVD software, which costs $30 a pop. Additionally, the company's prototype DVD player, Facet, will now also be blocked from sale. RealDVD allowed consumers to make copies of their DVDs onto their computers, while Facet is a HDD-equipped DVD player. The company has maintained that the software is entirely legal.
This case became important because it can answer the question of whether consumers in the U.S. are allowed to make copies of their DVD movies. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) regards Facet and RealDVD as tools of piracy that could cost the industry a lot of money, and claimed they were illegal under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Real argued that because it has licensed Content Scrambling System (CSS) from the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD-CCA), that its software and prototype DVD player do not break provisions surrounding the circumvention of copy protection, disregarding ARccOS and RipGuard.
"RealDVD makes a permanent copy of copyrighted DVD content," U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Patel wrote in her decision, "and by doing so breaches its License Agreement with the DVD Copy Control Association ... and circumvents a technological measure that effectively controls access to or copying of the Studios' copyrighted content on DVDs." Real, of course, said it was very disappointed with the Judge's decision. The MPAA on the other hand called it a victory for the creators and producers of movies and TV shows.
Whether or not Real will continue this fight remains to be seen, as the company has spent over $6 million defending its RealDVD software already.