Will Real face any lawsuits for new video recorder?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Saturday, 02 June 2007 05:23

Your IT - Entertainment

A streaming pioneer, Real has been around for more than a decade. Starting life as Real Audio, and only able to send AM quality streams way back in 1995, the Real Player has been through many incarnations, as it offered better sound quality, and then video, followed by better quality video. Although earlier versions and the Real Player Plus had a record feature, Real’s new Player places recording front and center and clearly differentiates it from the competition. 

Over the years, fighting battles against Windows Media Player, Quicktime and others, some of which no longer exist, Real Networks have tried monetizing what is essentially a free service. Sales of Real Player Plus continue to this day, but over the years the Real road has been rocky.

The ‘free’ Real Player was often made very difficult to find, with the site clearly pushing you towards the paid version. Attempts at including other software programs with Real came and went, as did the perception of Real in the user community when Real Player started becoming bigger and bigger, taking up system resources.

There was also the ‘Apple incident’, where Real were able to break Apple’s DRM, allowing Real to sell songs that Apple owners could load onto their iPods through iTunes. A tit for tat war ensued for a short time as Apple patched the DRM and Real broke it again.

But despite all of that, Real is one of the web’s pioneers, and true survivors, claiming to average 1.5 million downloads per day. They now stand ready now to possibly redeem themselves with their customers by releasing what could become the most useful player/recorder on the Internet, or at least, until their competitors start copying them.

Lisa Hungness, the GM of New Media for National Geographic Magazine Online said that: "RealPlayer feeds the appetite consumers have for interesting Web video while maintaining a connection with the content source. Our WildCam fans love to download and share our video. Thousands of our clips are posted across the Web. This will be a great new trend in online video viewing for consumers and content owners alike because consumers can share links back to the videos’ origin where similar experiences may be found and enjoyed."

Real Networks has invited the public to visit their website to “participate in the RealPlayer blog, register for product information and updates, and share ideas about how the new RealPlayer’s capabilities could change the face of online video”

So… It’s great news for Real, and great news for consumers. Real have said they believe their software is operating within the law, but video providers may not agree.

It’s too early to know if action will be taken, but chances are that the legal implications are under discussion by multiple parties in multiple companies as we speak, and if it's planned, we'll all know soon enough. For the sake of being able to easily save the online video you’re watching to watch it later, let’s hope Real Networks are successful!