Judge blames RealNetworks for DVD-ripping ban
Snuffs antitrust claims against Hollywood
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A US district judge has rejected RealNetworks' argument that Hollywood studios illegally joined forces to block the sale of its DVD-duplicating software, RealDVD.
On Friday, judge Marilyn Patel in California dismissed Real's antitrust claims, saying the preliminary injunction against distributing the DVD copying software still stands and that the company has no one to blame but itself.
RealNetworks clearly knew RealDVD would rouse trouble from Hollywood heads at the outset. On the day of its release in September 2008, Real preemptively filed a lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgmn ent that its software is legal. On the same day, movie studios countered with a lawsuit seeking to block Real's new approach to DVD-ripping.
RealDVD copies DVD files to a hard drive with decryption keys in place to create backup copies while retaining copy protection. The Motion Picture Association of America and others claim the software is illegal under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) because it bypasses technology designed to prevent copying.
In August 2009, the court granted the Studios' request for a preliminary ban on RealDVD. In the meantime, Real had filed an amended complaint that argued Hollywood's attempts to block the software amounted to a "cartel" agreement that violates US anti-competition laws.
But judge Patel said movie studios have a legitimate right to fight what they believes is illegal copying software. She said any financial losses suffered by Real from the injunction are the result of court action and not the studios' behavior.
"Real's purported injury stems from its own decision to manufacture and traffic in a device that is almost certainly illegal under the DMCA," Patel wrote.
Under the ruling, Real isn't allowed to modify its claims for the case, leaving the firm with few options until the MPAA's original lawsuit against RealDVD runs its course.
RealNetworks told El Reg it had nothing to say about the decision at this point. ®
COMMENTS
The fact DMCA exists at all pretty much sums it up.
When laws are passed with no other purpose but to allow cartels to operate you know your society is in trouble.
The US (and the UK) no longer have justice systems, just laws to keep the population from doing anything without paying their masters.
Not in France
"Kids being kids, the DVDs get scratched to feck so I back them up and create a new copy when the original dies. It saves me a fortune."
Here in France we have an even cheaper solution. If children don't respect their possessions we slap them and certainly do not replace them. Backing-up and replacing the DVDs only teaches them that there is no need to respect their possessions.
Another reason...
...that so many of us rip DVDs is to get shot of the rubbish at the beginning and end. With most current DVDs, I have time to make a coffee (and damn-near drink it) while the DVD intro drones on through the kind of rubbish none of its buyers actually give a tinker's damn about. Including warnings about everything from terrorism to paedophilia if we copy a disk - INSULTING both our intelligence and our pocket. If large-scale DVD copying involves criminals, it's because the media industry has made a bed it refuses to lie in.
A ripped DVD (copied from my own bought, legal disk - so what the HELL is the problem?!) starts straight into the movie I actually paid to see !!!
There's new technology around guys - and the monks with the quill pens can burn as many people at the stake as they like - it's not going to change anything in the long term, other than further alienate an already fed-up customer base.
Want to make a profit? Sell people want they want - NOT what you think you have a god-given right to impose on them.
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