Last week’s release of RealNetworks’ RealDVD program was received by Hollywood’s major movie studios with an invite to court. The studios sued the company because its new program enables consumers to rent, rip and return movies, being able to distribute their products as they please, causing significant losses.

Adams Media Research made some estimates on the revenue studios could lose this year alone, from the sale of DVDs, which could be of over $15 billion only in the United States, if consumers choose to stop buying DVDs and copy rentals from stores such as Netflix or Blockbuster.

The case is built around the fact that the studios consider the RealDVD program illegal, as it bypasses the DVD’s copyright protection. From a consumer’s point of view, the studios admitted that buying the program does make sense, because instead of paying $18.50 to buy a DVD, one can buy the $30 program, then pay $3.25 for each of the thousands of rentals available and then make permanent copies, building up an archive of his favorites for a much smaller price.

Still, RealNetworks’ official Web site claims that the product is 100 percent legal and Mr. Bob Kimball, the company’s general counsel, stated that RealDVD does not enable Internet piracy. He added that the company strongly discourages its clients from using the program to rip rental DVDs, but admitted that there is nothing that can be done to prevent them from using it in this direction. He also explained that they are willing to work on solutions to the problems raised by the studios but for such a move to be indeed successful, the entire industry will have to participate.

Unfortunately, the studios believe that the only way of solving the problem is to stop distributing the program, which is probably the last thing that RealNetwork’s officials would consider.

The company explained that RealDVD can be used for copying DVDs to computers and portable hard drives, but it is designed not to allow file transfers to other users and also it does not ruin the disc’s encryption technology developed to prevent piracy.

The studios involved in the suit against RealNetworks are Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros, Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures, General Electric Co.'s Universal , Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures, News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox and The Walt Disney Co.'s Disney studio.

The situation is unlikely to be resolved any time soon, as there are many aspects that demand attention and must be properly covered. Each of the parts involved prepared good arguments for their case and even though a similar case was won last year by a company that allowed DVD copying, the studios stated that there are no connections between the two cases and that the ruling is completely irrelevant to their case.

The truth is that even if a consumer buys the RealDVD with other thought than to pirate rentals, having it installed on his PC might cause him to slip at a certain point under the “just this once” excuse, that usually turns into a snowball effect.