Seattle (WA) – Hollywood studios scored the first goal in its match against Real Networks’ RealDVD software. The MPAA apparently forced Real Networks to take RealDVD off the market for now, as the software disappeared from the company’s website over the weekend.
Real Network’s pre-emptive suit to obtain declaratory judgment that its RealDVD software “fully complies with the DVD Copy Control Association's license agreement” came too late: The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) suit is asking a federal court to prevent Real Networks from distributing its software seems to have been successful enough to remove the download from Real Networks’ website for now. There was no information whether the company voluntarily removed the download or whether it was ordered to take the software down as a result of a court order.
“Due to recent legal action taken by the Hollywood movie studios against us, RealDVD is temporarily unavailable,” a message on the RealDVD website reads. “Rest assured, we will continue to work diligently to provide you with software that allows you to make a legal copy of your DVDs for your own use.”
In another message, the company tells users that “RealDVD is coming soon” and offers a newsletter sign-up to notify customers when the issue is “resolved” and “RealDVD is available” again.
According to the MPAA, the “RealDVD software enables users to engage in an illegal practice known as “rent, rip and return,” whereby a person rents a DVD from a legitimate business like Blockbuster or Netflix, uses the RealDVD software to make multiple permanent illegal copies of the movie, and returns the DVD, only to rent another popular title and make permanent copies of it, repeating the cycle of theft over and over again without ever making a purchase.” The movie industry claims that RealDVD creates exact copies of DVD while bypassing their encryption.
Real Networks, on the other side, promises that the software can makes an “exact” copy of a DVD to a hard drive, but unlike current DVD ripping programs, the developer claims that RealDVD does not remove or alter the CSS encryption and even adds additional DRM to the file saved on the hard drive.
Real Network’s pre-emptive suit to obtain declaratory judgment that its RealDVD software “fully complies with the DVD Copy Control Association's license agreement” came too late: The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) suit is asking a federal court to prevent Real Networks from distributing its software seems to have been successful enough to remove the download from Real Networks’ website for now. There was no information whether the company voluntarily removed the download or whether it was ordered to take the software down as a result of a court order.
“Due to recent legal action taken by the Hollywood movie studios against us, RealDVD is temporarily unavailable,” a message on the RealDVD website reads. “Rest assured, we will continue to work diligently to provide you with software that allows you to make a legal copy of your DVDs for your own use.”
In another message, the company tells users that “RealDVD is coming soon” and offers a newsletter sign-up to notify customers when the issue is “resolved” and “RealDVD is available” again.
According to the MPAA, the “RealDVD software enables users to engage in an illegal practice known as “rent, rip and return,” whereby a person rents a DVD from a legitimate business like Blockbuster or Netflix, uses the RealDVD software to make multiple permanent illegal copies of the movie, and returns the DVD, only to rent another popular title and make permanent copies of it, repeating the cycle of theft over and over again without ever making a purchase.” The movie industry claims that RealDVD creates exact copies of DVD while bypassing their encryption.
Real Networks, on the other side, promises that the software can makes an “exact” copy of a DVD to a hard drive, but unlike current DVD ripping programs, the developer claims that RealDVD does not remove or alter the CSS encryption and even adds additional DRM to the file saved on the hard drive.