Hollywood has taken serious action on the part of movie makers against RealNetworks' RealDVD. The Motion Picture Association of America has decided to take RealNetworks' RealDVD software to the federal courts.
The MPAA wants a restraining order from the federal courts in order to stop the RealDVD softwware program from being sold. Why? It is because the RealDVD software from RealNetworks allows users to copy DVDs and store them on their computer hard drives.
When RealDVD was first released, the company claimed that it was completely legal and in no way violated Copyright laws, because of several things.
They were the first to start the fight, and decided to file a suit against all the major movie making studios and the DVD Copy Control Association. According to Real's press release, the lawsuit "asks the court to rule that RealNetworks Home Entertainment Inc.'s RealDVD software...fully complies with the DVD Copy Control Association's license agreement."
They are sitting on the fact that their software doesn't actually break any encrytion in the process of copying the DVD, and even adds an extra layer of digital rights management.
The MPAA filed a suit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, claiming that "RealNetworks' RealDVD violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act because its software illegally bypasses the copyright protection built into DVDs." They also ask for monetary damages and this is what they say about RealNetworks's RealDVD.
"RealNetworks' RealDVD should be called StealDVD," Greg Goeckner, executive vice president and general counsel for the MPAA, said in a statement. "RealNetworks knows its product violates the law and undermines the hard-won trust that has been growing between America's movie makers and the technology community."While RealNetworks says their case was preceded by Kaleidescape's 2007 courtroom victory over the DVD Copy Control Association, the MPAA claim the two cases have nothing to do with each other. They fear people will be able to rip/burn/copy DVDs and keep them after renting by means of RealDVD. Thus, piracy will become far widespread and helped greatly by RealDVD. However, RealDVD doesn't believe this is the case.
"We are disappointed that the movie industry is following in the footsteps of the music industry and trying to shut down advances in technology rather than embracing changes that provide consumers with more value and flexibility for their purchases," RealNetworks said in a statement.
Will RealDVD win over the MPAA? Obviously, this is going to bring up a lot of questions about these kinds of software and exactly how far you can take "backups" and such. The questions relating to piracy are popping up everywhere, and it's not going to go away anytime soon. If RealNetworks' security methods are effective in stopping pirates, then maybe it would be okay for their RealDVD software to continue selling. However, it doesn't sound very effective at protecting DVDs from being illegally copied at all. I mean, how can you protect the DVD properly without having a guideline for the proper use of the stored copy? What kind of DRM could possibly justify the copying of a DVD? The only thing I could think of, is if the DVD had to be put in everytime, but then that makes the act of putting it on your computer useless. However, RealDVD allows up to 5 PCs to be able to play DVDs without the disc when authorized. Is this really giving protection, or just making piracy easier? It sounds pretty easy for somebody to illegally copy a rented DVD to their computer.
0 comments:
Post a Comment