“Hollywood’s six major movie studios [ Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures, Sony Corp.’s Sony Pictures, News Corp.’s Twentieth Century Fox, General Electric Co.’s Universal, The Walt Disney Co.’s Disney studio, and Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros] on Tuesday sued RealNetworks Inc. to prevent it from distributing DVD copying software that they said would allow consumers to ‘rent, rip and return’ movies or even copy friends’ DVD collections outright,” The Associated Press reports.
“The studios stand to lose key revenue from the sale of DVDs, estimated by Adams Media Research at $15 billion in the U.S. this year, if consumers stop buying DVDs and instead copy rental discs from outlets like Netflix and Blockbuster,” AP reports.
“The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, alleges RealNetworks’ RealDVD program, which launched Tuesday, illegally bypasses the copyright protection built into DVDs,” AP reports. “‘The incentive for the consumer is obvious and all but overwhelming,’ the studios said in a request for a temporary restraining order. ”Why,’ he or she may ask, ‘should I pay $18.50 to purchase a DVD when I can rent it for $3.25 and make a permanent copy?””
MacDailyNews Note: RealDVD is, unsurprisingly, as it is by RealNetworks, Windows-only. Cough, HandBrake, cough!
“For $30, consumers can buy RealDVD and use it to copy DVDs to computers or portable hard drives, though the program prevents them from transferring the files to other users. The maker calls RealDVD ‘100 percent legal’ on its Web site,” AP reports.
“‘This is not a product that enables Internet piracy,’ said Bob Kimball, general counsel for RealNetworks. Real has said the software enables DVDs to be copied onto up to five computers — with the purchase of up to four extra program licenses for $20 each — and does not alter the discs’ encryption technology meant to prevent wide-scale piracy,” AP reports. “The software locks the copy to the hard drive where it is copied and to the program it was copied with, Kimball said, and he asserted that copying one’s personal collection of DVDs amounts to ‘fair use’ allowed by law.”
Full article here.
This will ultimately prove to be a futile, doomed-to-failure move by Hollywood. They simply cannot stop it this way and, even if they stop Real, there far too many others that already do or will quickly provide the same or, more likely, better options. Didn’t you learn anything from the music cartels, guys? You can’t herd cats.
It’s really quite simple: Provide the content at a reasonable price, free of draconian DRM restrictions (we want to be able to move what we buy among computers, TV screens, iPods, iPhones, etc.) and people will buy your product. The thieves will always steal no matter what; that’s what they do.
Hollywood is driving potential paying customers away, just like the music industry did.
Draconian DRM and dopey lawsuits seeking to thwart fair use only create increased piracy as it frustrates would-be customers and the pirates just laugh at the DRM as they strip it off.
Good headlines for the unsophisticated public, but a complete non-issue for anyone with a real penchant for “backing up” their DVD collection. “MacTheRipper,” “AnyDVD,” “FastDVDCopy,” et. al, make the controversy moot . . . I’ve heard.
You don’t need to pay for rippers anyway. I wouldn’t buy it. Besides is hollywood sleeping or what, have you looked at the Windows software isle. There are about 10 or 15 DVD copy software programs that are already for sale. Why haven’t they been struck with a lawsuit?
Idiots!!!!!
Good question.
Why SHOULD I pay $18.50 to purchase a DVD?
I rip some of the movies I own using Handbrake. Mostly Pixar flicks.
The vast majority of movies are not worth watching twice. Only Hollywood types think they are.
I rent dvd’s, I rip them for viewing on Apple TV, I return the disc, I watch the film, I delete the film. I don’t have the space to store copies of every film I rent and the majority I wouldn’t want to anyway. If they want to avoid losing money then they have to stop people renting fullstop. Of course, 99% of titles would never get bought if that was the case because they’re crap.
Agree with the above two. Only an extremely casual user who wants to copy DVDs would think to use something like this. The good stuff that actually lets you copy the discs then upload them or burn to DVD are free. I won’t say the names here, but there’s a duo of very well-known programs for Windows that will copy about anything. Then there’s another duo for Windows that’s nearly as good (in case anything happens to the first duo). Anything Real or any other big company puts out is totally moot.
They drove me away. Haven’t bought or rented a DVD this year. Cough. Handbrake. Cough.
MDN and commenters: You are missing the point. RealNetworks is being sued by Hollywood for the way it marketed its product. They advertised the software as being an excellent choice for breaking international copyright laws.
If they had simply used language such as “back up your personal DVD collection” there would be no grounds for a suit.
Hollywood is pissed off that any “DVD backup” software is on the market, but all they can do legally is go after those who advertise their software was designed specifically for pirating movies and music.
The head people at RealNetworks are complete idiots for allowing this kind of marketing to be released. I am sure they know better. Some junior copywriter in advertising wrote “rent, rip, and return” thinking it was a cute succession of words beginning with the letter R and put it in writing before the legal department could approve the language used.
Reading Comprehension 101: It was the studios that said “rent, rip and return”, not Real. Try reading and understanding the article before posting, thanks.
I think it is also to do with the ‘deep pockets’ theory of law – theres little to no value in hollywood going after all these small developers, they’ve got no money to get. If they win the case wtih Real though, the damages could go into the millions…
As much as I dislike Real Networks, and as futile as I believe their fight may be, I actually hope that they get somewhere with this. Real today, iTunes tomorrow.
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the studios should ask what makes a movie worth 5 times the rental price if you want to keep it?
$18 for Blu-ray is high to me, $15 being just right, but $18 for a DVD? That’ll be worth $6 in a year or two? Not cool.
There are exceptions to the Copyright and DMCA laws which allow legal exceptions for bypassing CSS and other copy protection.
As a teacher of film and video editing I may legally rip DVDs for the purpose of demonstrating techniques. But that also binds me to the moral obligation to not abuse this privilege – and not copy Netflix, for example, for personal viewing enjoyment.
The best place to learn about Copyright and DMCA, IMO is this animated tutorial by the Stanford Center for Internet and Society.
The funny thing: it is all the legal mumbo-jumbo and clumsy menues that I have to watch when I load a DVD that p!ss me off royally. Really, I buy DVDs and make copies of just the movie, to watch it without somebody threatening me, a buying customer, with legal action.
BillyBob, you are mistaken.
There are two copyright laws at play here. It is true that US Copyright law does indeed allow you to back up personal media (established in the early 80’s after videocassette recorders became popular.) But the more recent Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) prohibits bypassing copy protection (i.e. CSS) even were it otherwise not prohibited by Copyright law.
According to DMCA, you can back up an audio CD legally because it has no DRM, but you cannot legally back up a DVD because it is illegal to bypass the CSS DRM.
HAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Real networks – HAAHAHAHAHAHA…
they deserve everything they get
Hollywood is taking a huge risk – what are the implications if they lost the court case? DVD ‘backup’ programs would be moved to the front shelf.
Just ignore Real since hardly anybody would buy the app anyway since it adds more DRM to your personal purchases.
Most DVD titles can be had for 9-15 bucks now. If someone wants a movie they will shell out 9 bucks. If they want to rip their movie, just like their audio cd, for their own digital collection, they should be allowed to.
Piracy, while wrong, does not always equal lost sales.