RealNetworks Sues Studios for Collusion Over DVD Copying

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 14, 2009 - 10:41am.

Seattle - RealNetworks (NASD: RNWK), which is currently embroiled in a copyright infringement lawsuit with the major movie studios over its DVD-copying RealDVD software, has asked the judge in the case for permission to file an antitrust complaint against the studios.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) claims that RealDVD violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by circumventing the encryption on their DVDs in the process of making personal copies.

In Real's new complaint, the company accuses the MPAA member studios, as well as the DVD Copy Control Association, of collusion in prohibiting consumers from making copies of DVDs.

"(The witnesses) unambiguously confirmed the Studios' position that the (Content Scrambling System) License Agreement (which is needed to legally make copies of DVDs) resulted from a joint agreement among the Studios to prohibit all copies of DVD content unless the Studios jointly authorize the making of such a copy," reads Real's complaint, as excerpted by CNET.

http://snipurl.com/i19xx (DMW previous coverage)

http://www.realdvd.com