http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/33401

RealNetworks filing preemptive lawsuit to protect its DVD-to-PC copying product
Submitted by Paul McNamara on Tue, 09/30/2008 - 10:03am.

Apparently tired of waiting to be sued by the motion picture industry over its new DVD-to-PC copying software, RealNetworks this morning announced that it will file a preemptive legal action of its own in an attempt to establish the product's legality.

(See updates below: Industry firing back.)

From a statement just issued by RealNetworks:

"In response to threats made by the major movie studios, RealNetworks this morning plans to file an action for a declaratory judgment against DVD Copy Control Association, Inc., Disney Enterprises, Inc., Paramount Pictures Corp., Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc., Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., NBC Universal, Inc., Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., and Viacom, Inc., in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The lawsuit asks the court to rule that RealNetworks Home Entertainment, Inc.'s RealDVD software, made available to consumers today at www.realdvd.com, fully complies with the DVD Copy Control Association's license agreement. ...

"RealNetworks took this legal action to protect consumers' ability to exercise their fair-use rights for their purchased DVDs. The DVD CCA, which represents numerous parties including all of the major studios, previously sued another company over the same issues. The trial court ruled against the DVD CCA and allowed the distribution of a product similar to RealDVD."

In addition, RealNetworks this morning has officially released the software, which debuted in beta Sept. 8 at Network World's DEMOfall 08 to a largely mute but stern reaction from the movie industry.

"We have nothing else to say at this time," a spokeswoman from the Motion Picture Association of America told me days prior to the opening of DEMO. Since then press reports have included intimations from film industry executives that the RealNetworks product was not likely to go unchallenged. I checked in with the MPAA again the other day to see if they had anything else to say about RealDVD and was told by a spokeswoman that the answer was no. As I replied to her, their silence speaks volumes.

I would expect we'll be hearing something from them soon.

(Update: Got that one right. Just received word that the MPAA will have something to say early this afternoon.)

(Update 2: Busy day for RealDVD news. My Network World colleague Keith Shaw reviews the product here. His verdict: "The software works, but with some hurdles." Those hurdles are apparently very much related to the legal issues, too.)

(Update, 3) Movie industry is out with its lawsuit/reply: "RealNetworks' RealDVD should be called StealDVD," says MPAA general counsel Greg Goeckner.)

*yawn*. DVDFAB is all you need guys, and it's legal. Even the free version will copy a movie for you.

Hollywood has now sued RealNetworks.

At least Real saw it coming. It will be interesting to watch this one play out.

I'm pretty sick of watching the studios and the labels try to kick around technology companies. We need copyright reform. Badly.

Get this!

MPAA spokeslawyers insist that they not be identified by name in reports from press-conference
Posted by Cory Doctorow, September 30, 2008 7:31 PM | permalink
The MPAA is suing RealNetworks for making a product that will rip a DVD, crap it up with DRM, and store it on your hard-drive. The MPAA says that only their stupid DRM, and not RealNetworks' stupid DRM, can be used to cripple DVDs. My take? A pox on both their houses.

Except this:

Lawyers for the MPAA, in a teleconference with reporters, said Kaleidesape and RealDVD are circumventing "technology designed to prevent copying."

The lawyers, who asked that their names not be published, said they were concerned "Consumers will think this is a legal product...when in fact it is totally illegal."

Wait wait wait wait: what? These unnamed lawyers are on a press-call with the media, as spokespeople for their company, and they "asked that their names not be published?" And journalists complied?

Truly, this is a new low in chickenshittery that has me scraping my jaw off my chest. These lawyers aren't deep-throat whistle-blowers sneaking information out of their employers' filing cabinets: they're the official spokespeople for the firm. And they get anonymity?

So what happens in the future -- after the MPAA gets its ass handed to it by the court -- if we want to argue that the MPAA's lawyers have a long history of going around saying that software is "totally illegal"? Do the MPAA get to deny it, because no one can name the spokesperson who said it?

And why on earth would the journalists honor such a request? "Unnamed MPAA lawyer says stupid thing" fails one of the important Ws of reporting: Who said it? MPAA, RealNetworks Wage Court Battle Over DVD-Copying Software

"I'm pretty sick of watching the studios and the labels try to kick around technology companies. We need copyright reform. Badly."

Phantom -- The studios and labels all think we need copyright reform, too. This is how they go about it.