Judge Halts Sales Of RealDVD

Controversial Software Lets Users Copy And Store Films To Hard Drive

(CNET)  A judge has ordered RealNetworks to suspend the sale of RealDVD, the controversial software that hands users the ability to copy and store films to a hard drive, according to a report published by NewTeeVee.com, a technology-news blog.

The film industry sought to prevent sales of RealDVD last week when it filed a lawsuit against RealNetworks. The Motion Picture Association of America accused Real of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and breach of contract.


According the story on NewTeeVee, the court wants sales to cease until Tuesday, when it has reviewed all the papers involved in the case. On Sunday evening, the RealDVD site notified visitors that because of the legal action taken by Hollywood, RealDVD was unavailable.


"Rest assure we will work diligently to provide you with software that allows you to make a legal copy of your DVDs," the post read.


Representatives from the MPAA and RealNetworks could not be reached Sunday.

[panton41-2009]

I''ve seen the announcement of this software on a tech website, but I can simply say no one cares about a DRM encumbered attempt to "copy" your DVDs. People who copy DVDs, and especailly those copy them to their hard drive, use software that strips CSS entirely and typically either acts as a 9 to 5 encoder, transcodes them to, say an AVI or MPEG file, or both. The product from Real will probably be shut down, the customers given some halfassed refund and it''ll be over.

The sad fact is the best programs for copying DVD, in current development, run on UNIX-like OSs, specifically Linux, and their develop is so distributed that a single injunction from an American court to stop it will simply mean the development server will be moved to a country with less draconian laws regarding the matter.

And, Yes, the DMCA HAS beyond a reasonable doubt eroded both fair-use laws for media and academic and scientific research into encryption technology. Go to eff.org to find out more.

[tmittelstaed]

There is perfectly usable, freely available Windows software that will decode DVDs to MPEG files on a PC, and allow them to be copied. It is just a matter of spending time finding it. And it is beyond the reach of any American court since it''s overseas.
The real battle isn''t DVDs the movie industries have pretty much written them off. It is over copying BlueRay discs. Right now, writers for that are expensive and decoding software is still in it''s infancy, but it''s getting there. What the movie industry wants to do is make sure that legal ways to copy BlueRay won''t be available to Joe SixPack. As long as decoding software for that format resides on Linux they don''t care, since they know Joe Sixpack isn''t going to go there.
However nothing is preventing Joe Sixpack from setting up a video camera and pointing it at the TV set, so really this business of trying to ban copy software is nothing more than a distraction from the real agenda - which is once more extending copyright again so that 300 years from now the motion picture industry will still be getting royalties from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves"

[yongamerica]

I''m going to buy a copy of this software just because it''ll pizz of these media vampires.

[spadeisspade]

If it is illegal to share/sell the contents of cds and dvds, by that logic this means I have purchased the rights to the content and should be allowed to store it in whatever fashion I so desire. I shouldn''t have to go out and re-buy my rights to something I already owned just because it was initially stored on a flimsy disc that is subject to scratches and breaking.

[eddom949]

Banning software? That''s SAD.