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Judge slaps ban on RealDVD software

A US federal district court judge has handed a preliminary injunction to Hollywood studios, to prevent RealNetworks from selling its RealDVD product to US customers who want to copy DVDs using the software. "The RealDVD products, by their very nature, open a veritable Pandora’s box of liability for Real,” wrote Judge Marilyn …

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Tom 35
FAIL

circumvents a technological measure that effectively controls access to or copying

CSS effective? Ha ha ha.

I wonder if real had extra stuff to get by all the extra crap that companies like Fox put on their DVDs (still not effective).

DancingOmelette
WTF?

Hmm @ puns

This judge really has a thing for Vegas... and puns. She knows that movie was awful, right?

Do... do people actually break copyright by copying retail DVDs? Does that actually happen these days? I really can't imagine that direct copies of retail DVDs amounts to a significant portion of piracy these days. They'd be better off reserving their legal budgets for suing more nefarious bittorrent-wielding students.

Martin 6
FAIL

Kafka was a merkin

"So while it may well be fair use for an individual consumer to store a backup copy of a personally owned DVD on that individual's computer, federal law has nonetheless made it illegal to manufacture or traffic in a device or tool that permits a consumer to make such copies"

Bob H
Paris Hilton

Sad...

I've seen this demo'ed and I was very impressed, disappointing to see this news. I wanted to buy it.

Paris, because she knows what happens in Vegas.

Eponymous Cowherd
FAIL

That speck in the distance.....

is the CSS horse laughing at futile attempts to shut the stable door after it bolted several *years* ago.

Perhaps they think that if they slam the door *really* hard the horse might magically re-appear?

zerofool2005
Linux

More Money

Just shows whoever pays to most money. Gets the law bent in their favour.

What about the thousands of other DVD ripping softwares?

raving angry loony

congratulations in order I guess

Perpetual copyright through the back door. Complete elimination of fair use. The ability to take public domain works and by slapping some encryption on them removing the work from said public domain.

Congratulations are in order to the RIAA and MPAA, as their goal of becoming the new "London Company of Stationers" and completely reversing the 1710 Statute of Anne has come a few steps closer.

I just hope like hell that other countries don't follow in the US footsteps, even with the billions being spent on lobbying by these dinosaurs.

Cameron Colley

Yeah, like, right on, groovy...

Now "Judge" how about that again, without the pathetic simile?

Anonymous Coward
WTF?

Right...

Horse, door, stable, bolted, shut.

Is there anyone left on the planet that wants to make copies of DVDs that either

a) doesn't know how to?

b) doesn't know someone who knows how to?

Anonymous Coward
Grenade

They have their cronies everywhere

The RIAA (mafia) have their cronies everywhere. Pretty soon they'll come after the PC manufacturers because after all, you need that to be copying a DVD - next is the electricity company for providing the 'criminals' with the necessary power for their theft!

Oh wait!

Isn't it time that somebody stopped these criminal copyright companies?? What is this world coming too?

jake

Earth to Judge Marilyn Hall Patel

Almost, but not quite, yer'onor ... You yourself put it well:

"But it is what it is. Once the distributive nature of the copying process takes hold, like the spread of gossip after a weekend in Vegas, what's done cannot be undone."

You see, the cat IS out of the bag. The worms have left the can. It's done. Put a fork in it.

When you combine the world-reaching power of "the internet" (what ever that is), powerful computers in every home, and powerful software freely available to anybody who wants it, the only logical end result is that Big Business no longer has a monopoly on the distribution channels for anything that can be digitized. Like it or not, that is the way it is. Copyright laws as we know them need revamping. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but them's the facts, regardless.

Angus Ireland
Stop

MPAA

Here we go again with the Motion Pictures Ass. of America...

cloudwatcher

Not all dvd-to-disk systems seem to be equal...

How is RealDVD any different form the high-end media-server systems made by Kaleidescape?

(other than maybe not being in the homes of wealthy film industry people in Hollywood?)

http://www.kaleidescape.com/products/

Alan Swartz

Another Hollywood/Disney Toady

Let's watch the next session of Congress extend Copyright to 500 years after death AND decide that there is NO fair use of anything. Watch for libraries to be outlawed within 5 years and video rentals to be outlawed withing 10 years.

King Edward I
Stop

Oh noes!

I have this application that can create perfect backups/copies of DVDs! Is it illegal?

It's called "dd".

'tards.

David Hicks

Humbug.

Should I mention DVDDecrypter?

I mean, I know it's illegal and stopped both development and official distribution some time ago, but it doesn't take much to find it. Then your fair use is protected. And then there's AnyDVD which is a commercial product that can remove protections and make copies of pretty much anything up and including BluRay.

Unlike RealDVD, which I understand just changed encryption schemes and locked the copy to your PC.

RealDVD just got the slapdown because it came from a big name.

rick buck
Gates Horns

Anyone/Anything That Can Not Copy

Someone asked if there was anyone that did not know how to coppy...well Windows Can Not Make a copy of a cd or dvd, as is my experience, just to answer someones question.

Their Idea to Protect Me?

or

JUST MORE SOFTWARE THAT DOES NOT WORK.

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