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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.
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