Photo: RealNetworks

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) recently launched a lawsuit to stop RealNetworks from distributing RealDVD, and the settlement of the case has resulted in the group RealNetworks having to pay $4.5 million (£2.98 million) to cover the MPAA’s legal costs. The MPAA seems satisfied with the outcome of the case, as General Counsel Daniel Mandel pronounced the conclusion successful, and pointed out that the unauthorised copying and distribution of movies is illegal.

Famous last words

RealNetworks had previously pledged to keep up its battle with the movie industry to keep its product on the market, but it seems that the pressure finally became too much, and they’ve had to take back their fighting words. Their earlier arguments about their reasons for not licensing their software, and the legality of their product, simply weren’t sufficient for Judge Marilyn Hall Patel.

What is – or was – RealDVD?

The RealPlayer was a storage and backup device from RealNetworks, which through the use of RealDVD software allowed users to copy their DVDs and keep them on the player’s hard drive. If you haven’t used it in the past, however, you won’t be using it in the future: it’s now been permanently banned. Some say that the players that have already been bought and sold will become collector’s items in the near future, so if you have invested in one, you might want to take very good care of it.

Not quite legal

Photo: Amazon

For the reason that the device was meant to be mainly for storage purposes, the product’s makers started off arguing that owners of DVDs had a right to back up their movies with software like RealDVD, but this reasoning turned out not to hold up in court. This court decision puts the brakes on the plans of other developers and companies planning storage or copying devices for the near future – no chance of copying DVDs to a PC’s hard drive, then. The court offered a simple solution to the problem of backing up DVDs: just buy another copy from a website like Amazon.

Public response

After the lawsuit received widespread media attention, a large number of consumers have expressed their views on the issue, creating debates about such weighty issues as socialism and property rights. Meanwhile, a survey demonstrated that as many as 90% of consumers wanted the right and the technology to back up their DVDs. In the same survey, the respondents said that having this capability would actually encourage them to buy more DVDs. Unfortunately for them, they won’t be getting their wish.

The future of copyright

The lawsuit seems to provide something of a lesson for copyright violators everywhere – media producers and courts alike are unlikely to tolerate any breaking or bending of copyright laws anytime soon. Of course, it seems equally unlikely that this will do much to prevent illegal copying or distribution of movies and music any time soon, since there are plenty of ways to do it that don’t involve a RealPlayer. In the end, the choice is still up to the individual to decide what the ethical thing to do really is.