Real Networks takes on Hollywood

Does backing up DVD films lead to piracy? That's the film industry's argument, and Real doesn't like it one bit.

Real Networks is preparing to take on the might of Hollywood over DVD copying software it released for a few seconds last year.

Hollywood claims the software means that punters can "rent, rip and return" DVDs and it will not make a cent. It claims that the software is one of the biggest technological threats to the movie industry's annual $US20 billion DVD market.

The film cartel's army of lawyers will argue that Real Networks DVD 'ripper' is an illegal digital piracy tool, but Real claims its $US29.99 software that allows DVDs to be easily backed-up to computer hard drives is legit. Unfortunately for Real Networks perhaps, the case has been assigned to the same federal judge who shut down music-swapping site Napster.

The lawsuit reveals yet again that the movie studios are on another planet when it comes to technology. They fear that if Real Networks is allowed to sell its RealDVD software, consumers will quickly lose interest in paying retail for DVDs that can be rented cheaply, copied and returned.

Fair enough, but consumers have been able to do that for some time with loads of other lumps of software out there and so far the scorched-earth scenario that the movie studios wail about has not come to pass

On the face of it, it would seem that such back-up software would be perfectly legal under the same laws that allowed VHS copying of television programs for home use. However, the Hollywood studios are going to try to use the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as their attack weapon. They claim that the DMCA makes illegal all software and other tools that might enable digital piracy. So we guess that if Hollywood wins the world will have to ban all DVD Writers too.

Oddly enough, the RealDVD product is a lot tamer than some of the hacking software that is out on the Internet. It is designed to simply let customers back up their legally purchased DVDs and allows only one copy of each DVD to be made. Ironically, the application is called "RealDVD" because it doesn't alter or remove anti-piracy encryption on DVDs, a fact which is no doubt irrelevant to the studios' highly paid legal mercenaries.