Judge keeps RealDVD off the market for now

Wired says software sold 3,000 copies before restraining order

By Jennifer Netherby -- Video Business, 10/7/2008 7:01:00 PM

OCT. 7 | The future of DVD copying software RealDVD is still on hold after a judge renewed the restraining order barring RealNetworks from selling its software at a Tuesday afternoon hearing.

Northern California U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ruled to keep the restraining order in place until she hears from experts on both sides what the software does. Patel, who previously presided over Napster’s copyright infringement lawsuit, originally put the order in place Friday evening while she reviewed court filings from the major studios and RealNetworks.

A statement from RealNetworks confirmed the ruling, saying the judge ruled “to extend the temporary restraining order against RealDVD until she can hold a more complete hearing to be scheduled. RealNetworks will have a formal statement later.”

Representatives with the Motion Picture Assn. of America couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.

RealNetworks launched RealDVD last week and immediately filed suit against the six major studios, who had threatened to sue (and did) over the legality of the software. RealDVD allows consumers to copy movies from any DVD onto a computer. The studios, which filed a countersuit hours after RealNetworks sued, claim RealDVD circumvents copy-protection technology CSS and that the company is in violation of its CSS license from DVD Copy Control Assn., the DVD licensing body. RealNetworks says it doesn’t circumvent copyright and keeps CSS in place on the copied file.

The RealDVD Web site continued to tell users Tuesday evening that the software is unavailable because of legal action. According to Wired, the company sold 3,000 copies of the software last week before it was barred from selling it. A number of documents filed in the case have been sealed, including the initial restraining order.

RealNetworks has partly argued that its software is legal based on court rulings last year in a lawsuit between the DVD Copy Control Assn. and Kaleidescape, a company that makes home theater systems that allow consumers to store their DVD library on a server for playback on their home network. That case is on appeal, but Kaleidescape has so far prevailed.

The studios argue in court papers filed Tuesday that the Kaleidescape case doesn’t apply to RealDVD. In a statement from Paramount Pictures chief technology officer Alan Bell filed today, Bell says Kaleidescape differs from RealDVD because copies of movies aren’t transferred to a personal computer as they are with RealDVD.

“Because Kaleidescape software appears to operate based on a self-contained and dedicated hardware system, the product is more akin to a traditional consumer-electronics device than RealDVD software, which must be first downloaded and then installed on an otherwise general purpose personal computer,” Bell said in the court filing. “For this reason, different provisions of the CSS license apply to Kaleidescape than apply to RealDVD.”