A ruling handed to software firm RealDVD has dealt a blow to consumers by affirming that consumers do not have the right to make personal archival copies.
U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Patel on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction that will prevent RealNetworks from selling the $30 software until a jury can decide the issue. That will undoubtedly keep RealDVD and Facet, Real’s prototype DVD player, off store shelves for an indefinite period. Facet also makes digital copies and stores them to a built in hard drive.
The decision represents a major victory for the film studios, which had accused Real of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and breach of contract in a lawsuit filed last fall. Had the decision gone against the film studios and its trade group, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), it would have been an affirmation that consumers have the right to copy their DVDs for personal use. Right now, when a DVD owner loses or breaks a disc, they conceivably must purchase another copy. RealDVD and Facet eliminate the need for discs once copies are made.
With RealDVD and Facet on the skids, the death knell has sounded for any outstanding hope that users might gain fair use for their DVDs. Certainly the ruling reinforces the DMCA provision which outlaws the circumvention of encryption on copyrighted works, but it also sends a message that users are not ultimately in control of their own purchases.
Rights groups like the EFF point out that arguments hinged on the DMCA — as the RIAA prosecution used — are more about propping up studio control of multimedia, and less about piracy.
…Whatever the outcome of that appeal, this ruling sends a chilling message to any technology innovator interested in delivering new products that interact with the DVDs you own. At the same time, Judge Patel’s ruling is not likely to make any dent in the widespread availability of free, easy to use, unauthorized DVD rippers like Handbrake, Mac the Ripper, and DVD Shrink.
In other words, as we’ve said before, this case has nothing to do with “piracy,” and everything to do with Hollywood using the DMCA to control the pace and nature of innovation for DVDs, to the detriment of those who legitimately buy their DVDs.
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