RealNetworks to defend itself in court on April 24th
updated 03:40 pm EDT, Fri April 3, 2009
RealDVD gets court date
RealNetworks will get a chance to defend the legality of its RealDVD DVD ripping software on April 24th in court, launched back in September, sales of which were later banned by a federal judge and the ban extended after the software maker was sued by movie studios. The trial will take place in a US District Court in San Francisco, RealNetworks Chairman and CEO Rob Glaser said in a Friday TWICE report.
RealDVD cost nearly $30 and allowed users to copy movie DVDs to a computer's hard drive for playback. There is an option to register up to four more PCs for playback, with each additional registration priced at $20. In its lawsuit, the movie industry is arguing that RealDVD violates the Digital Millenium Copyright Act as users can rent or borrow movies and then rip them, resulting in a loss of revenue for the studios. The studios are seeking damages and a permanent injunction of sales of the software.
Glaser said RealDVD protects rights holders, adding consumers “have the right to make a secure copy” that will make it impossible to be shared on a P2P network.
