United States movie studios and digital media pioneer RealNetworks will battle each other in the California federal court over the latter’s RealDVD, the developer’s high-end DVD copying program.

The two parties sued each other in the Los Angeles federal court. The Motion Picture Association of America Inc. accuses RealNetworks of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and asked judges to impose a temporary restraining order to bring to a standstill sales of the company’s DVD copying program.

Meanwhile, RealNetworks said it plans to ask the federal court to rule that the company acts in accordance with the license agreement of the DVD Copy Control Association. The MPAA represents big movie studios who don’t like the idea of a program that enables unauthorized copying of copyrighted works on bit.

On the other hand, RealNetworks tried to explain that its RealDVD software doesn’t enable users to distribute copies of their DVDs and this in fact is an additional level of protection. RealDVD enables its users to watch a DVD saved in a portable hard drive on 5 PCs per user. All a customer needs is an authorized copy of the $30 program.

Furthermore, RealNetworks reminded the federal court that the MPAA has previously lost a similar case in which the association tried to stop distribution of a product similar to RealDVD.

However, the MPAA maintains that the software developed by RealNetworks enables its users to "rent, rip and return" by legally renting a DVD.

"On its own Web site, RealNetworks acknowledges that this behavior is illegal and that its software could be used in that manner," the MPAA said in a statement.