Score one for Hollywood. RealNetworks agreed this week to settle lawsuits with major movie and TV studios for its RealDVD product, which allows users to copy DVDs onto hard drives.
As part of the settlement, RealNetworks will pay the studios $4.5 million to cover legal costs. In its announcement, RealNetworks said all parties have agreed to the “terms of a permanent injunction that will prohibit RealNetworks from distributing or supporting RealDVD or any other technology that enables the duplication of copyrighted content protected by the Content Scramble System, ArccOS or RipGuard.”
‘Litigation Behind Us’
Bob Kimball, RealNetworks president and acting CEO, said that, “until this dispute,” his company had enjoyed a good relationship with Hollywood. He added that Real was “pleased to put this litigation behind us.”
The agreement involves six major Hollywood movie studios, Viacom and the DVD Copy Control Association, as well as the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). In addition to the payment for legal expenses and abandoning RealDVD or any similar product, RealNetworks agreed to abandon its claims against the studios.
Daniel Manil, General Counsel for MPAA, told news media that the settlement affirms that “it is illegal to bypass the copyright protections built into DVDs designed to protect movies against theft.”
In August, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel issued a preliminary injunction against RealDVD. She declared at the time that the product would likely be found to violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Content Scramble System (CSS) license.
The MPAA said the Millennium act prohibits any technology that could be used to “circumvent measures” protecting copyrighted content. The CSS license, issued by the DVD Copy Control Association, bars companies from making technology to copy DVDs.
Slow Effort for ‘Managed Copying’
Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for consumer technology at the NPD Group, wasn’t surprised that RealNetworks settled. He noted that Judge…