Real demos "TiVo for DVDs" in court

Jake Widman
Thursday, 30 April 2009 02:23

Business IT - Technology

The prospect of a DVD ripping and storing device isn't likely to appease the MPAA, which brought the suit against RealDVD that landed Glaser in court in the first place.

According to the MPAA, consumers have no inherent right to copy DVDs they own and should pay extra for the digital copy now included on some commercial discs.

Real and its defenders claim that the MPAA's real interest is in preserving its business model and revenue stream from those digital copies.

Glaser pointed out that lots of DVD ripping software already exists and that the Facet, by locking a copy to the individual device, actually enforces some copyright protection.

Real also drew inspiration from Kaleidascape in the legal arena: in 2007, the high-end media server company prevailed in a suit brought against it by the DVD Copy Control Association, challenging its right to copy protected DVDs. That case is under appeal.

Ironically, ten years ago Real Networks sued StreamBox over that product's ability to let people save streamed RealAudio files to their hard drives.