Journalism is a trade rather than a profession, a bit like bricklaying
|
|
|
Real gives up fighting Hollywood
MEDIA SOFTWARE FIRM Real Networks has decided to give up fighting with Hollywood over its DVD copying software.
The outfit said that it will pay $4.5 million and drop its appeal of a court order barring sales of its DVD copying software.
The payout is to settle a lawsuit filed by the Hollywood movie studios, which claimed the Real outfit's technology violates copyright protection laws.
Real Networks also will refund money to about 2,700 customers who bought RealDVD, which allowed users to save one backup copy of a movie to a computer hard drive.
Bob Kimball, acting CEO for RealNetworks, said he was pleased to put the litigation behind him. Until this dispute, Real had always enjoyed a productive working relationship with Hollywood, he said.
US District Judge Marilyn Patel in San Francisco ruled in August that RealDVD circumvents copyright-protection laws and granted the movie studios' request for an order permanently banning the product's sale.
The announcement will be a little disappointing for those who hoped that Real Networks would appeal. This could have made the outfit the champions of fair use, rather than just a somewhat annoying maker of odd proprietary video software that has long since fallen out of fashion. µ
Share this:
Share
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