There is a lot of hype surrounding the upcoming lawsuit between RealNetworks and Hollywood’s major motion picture studios. The company is being accused of releasing a DVD player/ripper program that will cause significant loss in the long run for the movie studios, as their officials fear that people will no longer buy DVDs and use the program to copy their movies from their friends or from rental stores.

The issue, even though it raises some good questions on the effects of one commercial action against another, is unlikely to have a quick fix, especially considering the fact that similar demands to take a certain program off the market were once brought by the record companies, looking to minimize their loss caused by pirating.

The present matter involves the launch of RealNetworks’ new RealDVD program, which even though was developed to help users copy DVDs to PCs and other portable hard drives for their own use and comfort, it is now presented as a pirating tool which will cause major damage for the movie studios. Their officials explained that RealDVD enables consumers to rent, rip and return movies, ruining the industry’s DVD sales. Comparing the prices for each of the two paths that consumers could take, RealNetworks’ variant would make a lot more sense. The program costs $30, fee which is only paid once; then DVD rentals run up to $3.25 a piece. On the other hand, buying a DVD requires at least $18.50 and in the long run adds up to a lot more, especially for movie enthusiasts who constantly update their movie libraries.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) began a strong campaign against RealDVD, stating that "We will vigorously defend our right to stop companies from bringing products to market that mislead consumers and clearly violate the law." Greg Goeckner, executive vice president and general counsel for the MPAA, expressed his blunt point of view, stating that "RealDVD should be called StealDVD […] RealNetworks knows its product violates the law, and undermines the hard-won trust that has been growing between America’s moviemakers and the technology community."

RealNetworks claims that the product is 100 percent legal. Its officials also stated that they are disappointed with the movie studios, which follow the footsteps of the music industry, trying "to shut down advances in technology rather than embrace changes that provide consumers with more value and flexibility for their purchases." There are several key features in the program, as the ripped DVD content is only viewable in Real’s player and cannot be transferred to more than five devices. The company acknowledged that its customers could use the program for such extensive ripping actions but it strongly discourages these actions and admitted that there is no clear way of monitoring this aspect.

The MPAA filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles, and the major members of the association involved in the matter 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.