Tuesday, six Hollywood movie studios have sued RealNetworks over the latter’s software program that enables users to make digital copies of DVDs.

On the studios side, Hollywood based its decision on the fact that the software is bound to pose a threat to the digital downloads business and also to put people off buying DVDs, enticing customers only into renting DVDs and copying them afterwards.

Seattle-based digital media company RealNetworks stated that their RealDVD software allows users to make backup copies of their discs or to take movies on their laptop with them on the road. Moreover, they added that the program was compliant with Hollywood’s DVD protection regulations, since it featured encryption of the digital copies, thus preventing illegal file sharing.

The six studios accused RealNetworks of violating the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by disregarding the anticopying mechanism that DVDs are fitted with. On October 28, 1998, then-United States President Bill Clinton signed the DMCA into law. It is divided into five titles: the WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties Implementation Act of 1998, the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act, the Computer Maintenance Competition Assurance Act, Title IV that includes six miscellaneous provisions and the Vessel Hull Design Protection Act.

An upset Greg Goeckner, executive vice president and general counsel for the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), stated that RealDVD should be called StealDVD, since it clearly both violated the law and burned some bridges between America’s moviemakers and the technology community. The MPAA is a non-profit business and trade association aimed at advancing the business interests of movie studios.

The other companies that have filed the legal action against RealNetworks are Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Studios, Warner Brothers, Columbia Pictures, the Walt Disney Company and Sony, all of which are now trying to bar sales of the copying software.

Also on Tuesday, the digital media company countersued the Hollywood studios in a San Francisco federal court, requesting an investigation into whether RealDVD violated license rules.

RealNetworks, a provider of Internet media delivery software and services, is best known for their RealAudio, RealVideo and RealPlayer products, which are a compressed audio format, a compressed video format and a proprietary cross-platform media player, respectively.

Other household names are the company’s SuperPass, RealArcade and Rhapsody services. The latter, an online music service, was the first to offer users streaming on-demand access to almost every track in the library.

Adams Media Research, the media industry's key source of market data, has estimated that in case the court banned sales of the RealNetworks, the company would be losing revenue of approximately $15 billion this year.

Currently, the RealDVD digital copying program can be purchased for $30, allowing users to make copies of their favourite music or movies, instead of paying $18.50 for a DVD.

Renting a DVD costs $3.25.