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You are here: News > News > MPAA Wages War against RealNetworks
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| » 18 May 2009 |
| MPAA Wages War against RealNetworks |
| RealNetworks, one of the companies that first introduced the concept of streaming video through its Real media player line and is also known for its Rhapsody music service, is about to tangle against the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) over the right to sell their RealDVD product. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel is supposed to hear closing arguments in a trial that will resolve whether or not the ban over the sale of RealDVD continues. More importantly, the trial will likely continue the precedent of the entertainment industry using all its legal influence to protect its copyrights and prevent the piracy of their intellectual property. The RealDVD application helps users create and store copies of DVDs in their computer hard drives—something that simply does not sit well with the MPAA. The trade consortium representing the six largest film studios in Hollywood filed suit against RealDVD sale last September, accusing RealNetworks of breach of contract and copyright infringement. RealDVD and Facet, a planned DVD player that can copy and store films, would hand consumers the power to copy rented disks for reselling to thousands or even millions of people without paying a single cent for royalties. This pirating practice is known as "rent, rip, and return." The legal representatives of RealNetworks contended in court that the company operated within the law and that users have the legal right to backup copies of their media in that particular fashion. The MPAA disagreed vehemently with that argument even as "fair use" advocates kept a close eye on the proceedings in case a favorable decision for RealNetworks came about. RealNetworks further argued that MPAA's breach of contract assertions are bogus because the DVD Copy Protection Association—a faction that includes DVD makers and film studios created to protect discs from piracy—issued the company a license to use the DVD Content Scramble System (CSS), the studio's encryption technology developed to thwart piracy. However, RealNetworks is already trudging on shaky legal ground from the onset of the trial. Four days of testimony in the San Francisco federal court reveals that RealNetworks offers very little evidence that it didn't break the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. Furthermore, MPAA's evidence appears to have contradicted the multimedia company's claims of procuring a license to use the studio's encryption technology and owning the right to duplicate DVDs. |
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