DRM. Hollywood wins. RealNetworks doesn’t.
p2pnet news view DRM | P2P:- A new US court decision, “sends a chilling message to any technology innovator interested in delivering new products that interact with the DVDs you own”.
The statement came from the EFF’s Fred von Lohman, commenting on the ruling, which says RealNetworks can’t sell its $30 RealDVD, created to allow consumers to make copies of DVDs they paid good money for.
“Although free DVD ripping software is readily available online, Real raised the hackles of Hollywood executives in 2008 because it paid for a license to the DVD Copy Control Association, believing that it could be interpreted to allow the services they wanted to provide,” says The Guardian, going on »»»
In her ruling, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel said that the complex meant that it was not illegal for consumers to copy their own DVDs just illegal to produce a program that allowed them to do so.
“While it may well be fair use for an individual consumer to store a backup copy of a personally-owned DVD on that individual’s computer, a federal law has nonetheless made it illegal to manufacture or traffic in a device or tool that permits a consumer to make such copies.”
The case was brought by the Motion Picture Association of America – the consortium representing Hollywood studios that has become notoriously litigious in the face of unauthorised downloading and online file sharing.
Von Lohmann is quoted as saying he expects Real to appeal the ruling.
$30 RealDVD – RealNetworks `surprised` by MPAA lawsuit, March 24, 2009
The Guardian – Judge rules that DVD copying software is illegal, August 12, 2009
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August 12th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
“In her ruling, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel said that the complex meant that it was not illegal for consumers to copy their own DVDs â just illegal to produce a program that allowed them to do so.”
What kind of crazy backward logic is that?!
August 12th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Didn’t another company already win a similar case?
How does this new result and the previous result “mesh” ?
August 12th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
I cut down a tree in my backyard this morning which is not illegal, but it is illegal for Husqvarna to make a chainsaw that makes it possible for me to cut down a tree.
And i also probably will be sued but some union for taking a job away, and then i’ll be sued by the tree hugger association for taking down a tree..
just a sarcastic point of view on the screw up world we live in…
btw, doesnt that judge look like something out of a horror movie
August 12th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
The mpaa wasted their money, as there are already apps that decode/rip dvds, and unlike RealNetworks the software authors have no interest in working with or placating the mpaa.
“btw, doesnt that judge look like something out of a horror movie”
Yeah, I even have the title: “Beer Goggles, the Next Day”.
August 12th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
I don’t think fossils should be allowed to rule on new-age technology.
if you’re over 50, then you should be limited to Jon’s other blog. That’s it.
August 12th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Another ridiculous case from the idiots at MPAA…
August 12th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
The reason for nailing RealDVD is obvious when you think about it. Sure there are lots of free “illegal” rippers out there without the same restrictions…
But as Jon keeps saying, it’s all about control of when, where and how one consumes their “product”, so that they can control price and availability at their own whim and bleed the cash cow consumer for ever greater amounts and again and again for the same product in a different format, bit rate or whatever.
Big Media’s thinking is to stomp out this software, then to eventually win over all the “illegal” software and methods to prevent any kind of uncontrolled copying at all. Period.
Achieving this may or may not be futile in the long run, but unfortunately in the meantime Big Media has got enough money and clout to bend governments all over the world to their will, don’t they? Alright, it doesn’t all go their way, such as with the grotesque three strikes internet policy, but overall their winning all the precedents aren’t they, as sickening as that is.
They’re slowly but surely taking away any and all fair use rights and driving anything that tries to restore them further and further underground and into illegitimacy. Disgusting, isn’t it?
When you think about it like this, the battle with Real makes perfect sense – the kind that a powerful and corrupt cartel would think of.
August 12th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
“In her ruling, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel said that the complex meant that it was not illegal for consumers to copy their own DVDs â just illegal to produce a program that allowed them to do so.”
Hmm… Could REAL sell their code, then point people to one of the free compilers out there?
Bare-naked code isn’t a program. Then people could compile their own program thus never having bought the program!
August 12th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
US law is stupid, end of story…
August 12th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Patel?
The one who accepted bribes from the RIAA about Napster?
So now she accepted bribes from the MPAA?
I wonder why I am not surprised.
In addition [she] refered to the DMCA. Since the DMCA is unconstitutional because it authorize among other things abusive search an seizure, trying to enforce it is a crime.
Let’s go and arrest her!
Anyway it will end up like this when all the entertainment executive parasites and their lawers will be rounded so why not start now?
August 12th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
What are you people going to when Bill Gates of microsoft finally caves into the movie cartels and modifies windows vista and windows7 so that even the illegal software like dvd decrypter and dvd shrink of dvdfab or slysoft won’t work ?
I hear dvd decrypter does not work with windows 7.
Surely it would not be that difficult.
I have a jerry rigged version of windows xp pro i am NEVER going to get rid of………………
August 12th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
Ummmm……..not use vista?
August 12th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
[...]
the context of this article makes absolutely no common sense…the reader who wrote the tree cutting down analogy hit it on the head. these copyright groups,their lawyers, and bribed judges dont live in our real world. when you read this article you get a good dose of bizarro world legislation education. i guess with the bribes and corruption any lawyer or judge can spew anything from their mouths with a straight face and be able to sleep at night.
cant wait for these old people to go and die off and let actual informed citizens start making decisions/laws.
August 13th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
“….Bare-naked code isnât a program. Then people could compile their own program thus never having bought the program!”
Now THAT is the kind of thinking I’m talking about! How ’bout it? Anybody know if that would fly?
Unfortunately, US law is kind of stupid – but it was made by Americans so…. The upside is that it is changeable (so I hear) though it may be slow going.