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The battle over DVD ripping has taken another turn with a U.S. District Court extending a temporary restraining order that prevents RealNetworks from marketing its RealDVD software which copies movie DVDs to a storage system.

In a move that favours Hollywood studios, Judge Marilyn Patel said she will keep the restraining order in effect until she learns more details about the software. A follow-up hearing won’t be scheduled until sometime after Nov. 17, Patel said.

In an interview with ChannelNews and SmartHouse Bill Hankes of RealNetworks in the USA said “This issue is about consumer’s rights and whether they are able to copy a DVD to a storage device Vs storing them on a shelf. The judge in the case has basically asked for more time to review information. What the MPA are trying to do is make this a case about contracts”.   

According to TWICE Magazine in the USA the ruling extends a temporary halt ordered Oct. 3 by the judge, who is considering a request by movie studios to read PDF versions of the lawsuits for a temporary injunction on sales. The studios want the temporary injunction in place while the court hears a lawsuit in which they contend the software violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The studios seek damages and a permanent injunction against sales.

 

The Movie Producers Association want to “prohibit the manufacturing or trafficking of any technology or product, service or device that is designed for the purpose of circumventing measures that effectively protect copyrighted titles.”

TWICE say that In its court filings, Real unsuccessfully cited several reasons to strike down the studio’s demands to extend the temporary halt in sales, including the assertion that making “personal backup copies” of legally acquired DVDs is permitted by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1984 Betamax ruling. Because of that ruling, which allowed consumers to record TV shows for their personal use, the studios “cannot avail themselves of the DMCA as an end-run around fair use,” Real contended.

“We are gratified that the court recognized the harm of RealDVD to the motion picture industry and the strength of our arguments that the product circumvents the copyright protection built into DVDs,” the Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA) said in a written statement. The studios fear that Real’s software, and by inference DVD-copying movie servers, will encourage consumers to rent and borrow DVDs and thus “cause immediate and irreparable harm” to the studios’ DVD rental and sales revenues, the studios’ suit said.

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