Judge Temporarily Blocks Sale Of RealDVD

from the who-does-this-help? dept

In the lawsuit between the movie studios and RealNetworks over Real’s DVD ripping software, RealDVD, it appears that a judge has issued a temporary injunction against Real, keeping the company from distributing the software until the judge has had a chance to read through the various documents. A more complete decision allowing or disallowing the sale prior to a trial should come on Tuesday. Of course, the movie studios will claim that Real should be barred from allowing the software to be sold because it will cause “irreparable harm.” That, of course, is ridiculous. Real’s software only lets you make limited backups, by putting its own DRM on the copies. If someone really wants to make backups, and Real’s software isn’t available thanks to an injunction, then they’ll most likely get a copy of other DVD ripping software that doesn’t even include the limitations that Real’s does. In other words, in taking RealDVD off the market, as the studios would like, it actually would probably lead to more movies being copied without DRM than if RealDVD were on the market. On a separate note, it appears that Real’s decision to rush to court and file for a declaratory judgment on this case was a wise move. The lawsuit has been moved from Southern California, where the studios filed suit later in the day, to Northern California, where Real filed suit in the morning.

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Companies: mpaa, realnetworks

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Comments on “Judge Temporarily Blocks Sale Of RealDVD”

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14 Comments
Ima Fish (profile) says:

Wow, who has really used Real software in the last ten years? Sure, there was a time back in the 90s when you basically needed it to access video and music online, those days are way gone.

Gee, I wonder what other utterly behind the times products Real could come up with?

10. Real Memory Optimizer.

9. Real-Time Hard Drive Compression.

8. Real HD-DVD Ripper

7. Real Explorer, a GUI file management system.

6. Real Name-it, enable long file names in 16 bit operating systems!

5. Real Blu-ray Ripper (Coming in 2018!)

4. Real Browser, a shell for IE 4.0, allowing for tabbed browsing!

3. Real Fragged, a fully 32 bit disc defragger for Fat32 drives up to 1 gigabyte.

2. Real Audio, for Warp OS/2

1. RealDOS, a fully 32 bit DOS replacement.

Overcast says:

Too bad – it was the only software out there that could copy DVD’s!!!!

lol

Regardless, again – the MPAA trying to even keep me from making copies of my own DVD’s is BS. If they want to stop people from making backup copies, they should offer free replacement DVD’s if mine gets scratched.

Until that point, keeping people from making copies of their own movies is complete BS.

John Stottlemire (user link) says:

Who told that lie?

Reliance on what others report is not always the best thing to do.

The case is currently before Magistrate Judge Howard Lloyd and the TRO was filed with the Court on Friday (October 3, 2008). A ruling on the TRO has not been handed down by the court. Although RealDVD may no longer be available, a Judge DID NOT temporarily block the sale of RealDVD.

The entire Docket of this case is available on Justia http://dockets.justia.com/docket/court-candce/case_no-5:2008cv04548/case_id-207595/

Mike (profile) says:

Re: Who told that lie?


The case is currently before Magistrate Judge Howard Lloyd and the TRO was filed with the Court on Friday (October 3, 2008). A ruling on the TRO has not been handed down by the court. Although RealDVD may no longer be available, a Judge DID NOT temporarily block the sale of RealDVD.

Actually, reports are coming out saying that a TRO absolutely was granted, but under seal:

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/10/judges-top-secr.html

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