p2pnet news view Music:- RealNetworks isn’t taking Hollywood’s attack against it lying down.

The major movie studios claim the companies RealDVD backup utility infringes copyrights. So they’re suing it.

But now, “Escalating its already simmering court battle with Hollywood, Real Networks has expanded its lawsuit against the six major Hollywood movie studios and the DVD Copy Control Association, a cross-industry consortium, in federal court in northern California,” says the New York Times, going on:

“Real’s new complaint asks for an injunction against the industry’s anticompetitive activity and for monetary damages for lost business. It is unlikely to immediately affect an earlier lawsuit in which the studios and the association are asking for a preliminary injunction to stop the sale of RealDVD.”

Real claims the studios, “collectively decided to avoid setting up individual agreements with the company through a ‘group boycott’,” says TechFlash, adding the suit notes »»»

Consumers are directly harmed by the Studios’ and the DVD CCA’s conduct. The risk the Studios faced – that some one of them would do a deal with RealNetworks or any other of their potential competitors – is the risk created by a competitive marketplace. Consumers would have obtained a new technology to gain more value from their DVDs, without having to pay again for a backup copy of the DVDs they had already purchased. The Studios decided to short-circuit this outcome so that they could appropriate all of the extra value themselves, through the means of a group boycott. The DVD CCA was the instrumentality that they used to effectuate the boycott. A group boycott is, indeed, a very effective means of achieving this objective. Not coincidentally, that is also why it is per se illegal under the antitrust laws.

And »»»

By their illegal agreement, the co-conspiring Studios have ensured that – unless a court intervenes – they will face no competition in the market for technology that enables a consumer to make a secure backup copy of a DVD that she already owns. With no competitors to challenge them, the Studios will face less pressure to make the technology available to consumers sooner rather than later, or to develop consumer-friendly features. Competition and consumers alike will suffer as a result of this unlawful conduct.

Closing arguments slated for May 21.

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infringes copyrights – Real Networks Sues Studios on Antitrust Grounds, May 13, 2009
TechFlash – Real files antitrust suit, looks to break Hollywood studio ‘cartel’, May 13, 2009