You'se guys are no match for the MafRIAA.
All your digital content are belong to us.

So Hollywood have killed off a product that made a copy of a DVD, but the copy had better protection then the original DVD.

At the same time there are lots of programs that are free, do the same thing but remove the protection completely.

So the people who want to do the stuff Hollywood don't like (copy a rental desk for example) still can. And most doing things Hollywood don't like would not be using this Real software.

People who just wanted to copy their DVDs to a computer for easy playback now have a choice of not doing it, or doing it for less money and being able to share the copies too. Just have to use kind of shady software...

Looks like an own goal to me.

I agree with kurkosdr, it's hopeless in the US.

The thing is, when we buy DVDs we can't copy it, and if we break it we don't get a free replacement. So, if we are licensing content and have to pay full price to replace the content and can't back it up, we aren't really paying for anything. We're just paying.

Last time I checked, Real Networks is based on the USA, and the DMCA makes it clear that the production of any software that helps the circumvention of any copy protection is illegal under US law. You can thank Hollywood for that.

So, with the law not on their side, and with a dozen of Chinese companies distributing faster and more updated software than theirs for free (ex DVDFab), it made sense for Real to quit from the software and shake that liability of their backs.

Unfortunately, the US have lost their fair use rights long time ago, and laws like DMCA make sure it will stay that way, so it was unlikely Real would win this even if they didn't settle.

As regards Real being out of fashion, there are noobs who still use their spyware player for some reason, but fortunately not much. Their media format definitely competes wmv in terms of needlessness