Intellectual Property Law

Real DVD Monopolies (or so says RealNetworks)

By Posted by Alan Wexelblat

Last year I made a passing note of a product called RealDVD that was supposed to let you burn a DVD onto a PC drive, with copy prevention software intact. I was sort of dubious that the product would amount to anything.

Well, it appears to have amounted to (another) antitrust claim against the Cartel. This time, Real Networks is claiming that the MPAA and the studios - as well as the DVD Copy Control Association - have conspired to shut out Real and its product from any hope of copying DVDs. This is just the latest claim in what appears to have been a low gauge skirmish between the two parties for several months.

I suppose it would be interesting to hear the Cartel explain why, exactly, a program that maintains the DVD's inherent anti-copy features is a bad thing, other than "we didn't design it." But beyond abstract fancy I doubt this will amount to much of anything.

Full post as published by Copyfight - The Politics of IP on May 14, 2009 (boomark / email).