Intellectual Property Law

Scientist Says DVD Copying Software Circumvents Encryption

By David Kravets

SAN FRANCISCO — A computer scientist testified in federal court here Tuesday that RealNetworks’ DVD copying software circumvents encryption technology, an assertion bolstering Hollywood’ claims that the product is illegal and a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Witness Robert Schumann, who owns several encryption patents and testified on behalf of Hollywood’s successful lawsuit against DVD-encryption-busting company 321 Studios, said the RealDVD product circumvents at least two areas of the Content Scramble System designed to prevent DVD copying.

The Motion Picture Association of America’s case against the RealDVD product weighs whether consumers have a right to duplicate their DVDs for personal use, as RealNetworks claims. The studios, fearing for their livelihood, say there is no fair use right. The U.S. courts have never squarely answered the question.

Still, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, who is presiding over the case, might never decide that question. That’s because the 10-year-old DMCA does not grant a fair use right of duplication if encryption technology was circumvented. If she finds circumvention, she does not have to answer the fair-use question.

Schumann testified before a packed courtroom here that the CSS technology was circumvented in at least two ways: disabling drivelocking (.pdf) and bypassing Bus encryption.

Those features, if left intact, require the DVD to remain in a computer’s hard drive to play a movie, Schumann testified. Yet the $30 RealDVD software allows the copying of a movie to an external hard drive, where it can then be played and transferred to another computer.

“The copies stored by RealDVD have these protections removed,” Schumann testified, adding that other DVD encryption features known as RipGuard and ARccOS were also bypassed.

For its part, however, RealNetworks claims that nowhere in the CSS license agreement does it require that the physical disc remain in a computer’s hard drive during playback. The Seattle-based technology concern also claims that the company adds a level of encryption on top of copied movies, which limits playback of a copied movie to no more than five computers running the RealDVD software.

Despite hours of cerebral testimony, the lawyers got heated when MPAA attorney Rohit Singla asked Schumann if RealNetworks could alter its RealDVD software and allow copied movies to be play back on an “infinite” number of computers.

Defense attorney Don Scott objected: “That’s not the product we make,” he said.

Judge Patel overruled the objection. Schumann answered: “It’s essentially removing one line of code.”

On Friday, Patel closed the courtroom during testimony surrounding the actual CSS code. She said it was a protected “trade secret” although it has been hacked and cracked so much that the decryption code has been adorned on shirts and ties. Court was recessed Monday.

RealDVD debuted in September, when it sold 3,000 copies before Patel ordered a distribution freeze pending the outcome of a three-day hearing expected to end Wednesday.

RealNetworks chief Rob Glaser is expected to testify later Tuesday.

Photo: spadgy

See Also:

• RealNetworks: ‘We Didn’t Think’ MPAA Would Sue
• DVD Copying Case Focuses on ‘Fair Use’
• MPAA, RealNetworks Smoking ‘Illegal Substances’
• MPAA Claims RealNetworks ‘Destroyed’ Evidence in DVD Copying Case …
• Judge Renews Decision Barring Sale of DVD-Copying Software …
• MPAA-RealDVD Trial Portends Legality of DVD Copying
• Hollywood Control of DVD-Copying at Crossroads

Full post as published by Threat Level on April 28, 2009 (boomark / email).