RealNetworks Goes After Hollywood To Protect RealDVD

RealNetworks took a preemptive strike on Tuesday to protect itself from Hollywood blowback around its RealDVD DVD ripping software.

In a statement issued on its Web site RealNetworks said it filed a lawsuit against major Hollywood studios to "protect consumers' fair-use rights with RealDVD." The suit comes after several studios reportedly threatened legal action against RealNetworks.

Released earlier this month, RealDVD is a PC application that lets consumers save their DVDs to their hard drive to watch later without lugging around the physical discs. Users can rip their DVD collection to their computers without removing or altering the CSS encryption, making it legal to copy DVDs without infringing on copy protection and copyright laws.

Essentially, RealDVD works like this: A user launches the software, inserts a DVD into a PC's DVD drive and hits "save." The application does the rest.

Anticipating Hollywood outrage, RealNetworks said it plans to file an action for a declaratory judgment in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA), Disney Enterprises, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Film, NBC Universal, Warner Bros. Entertainment and Viacom. The lawsuit asks the court to rule that RealDVD software fully complies with the DVD Copy Control Association's license agreement.

"RealDVD allows consumers to securely store, manage and play their DVDs on their computers," RealNetworks said in a statement. "It does not enable users to distribute copies of their DVDs. RealDVD not only maintains the DVD's native CSS encryption intact, it also adds another layer of digital rights management encryption that effectively locks the DVD copy to the owner's computer to ensure that the content cannot be improperly copied or shared. RealDVD provides consumers with a great solution for the playback and management of their DVD collections while adding security that is more robust than CSS."

RealNetworks said it took the legal action to protect consumers and their ability to exercise fair-use rights for the DVDs they purchased. RealNetworks said the DVD CCA, which represents all of the major movie studios, has previously sued another company over the same issues, but the trial court in that case -- DVD Copy Control Association Inc. v. Kaleidescape Inc in Santa Clara Superior Court -- ruled against DVD CCA and allowed the distribution of a product similar to RealDVD.

"Having lost the case once, the major studios are now trying to get a different result by going to a different court," RealNetworks said.

RealNetworks maintained that it creates "innovative products that are fully legal" and "respectful of the legitimate interests of content creators and rights holders." The company expects to continue to defend RealDVD and consumers' rights to use it.

"We are disappointed that the movie industry is following in the footsteps of the music industry and trying to shut down advances in technology rather than embracing changes that provide consumers with more value and flexibility for their purchases," RealNetworks said.