Corporate greed at the heart of MPAA versus Real lawsuit

MPAA and RealNetwork court proceedings started this week in a copyright lawsuit against the RealNetworks software system that allows consumers to make digital backup copies of their DVDs. Lawyers from the Motion Picture Association of America have won a petition to close the courtroom, but their testimony is to be based around the fact that Real is selling software that allows copying of a copyrighted product.

The MPAA feels that they should receive compensation for every copy made of their copyrighted DVDs. Consumers should basically only be permitted one copy of a DVD and have to pay again if they want access to a digital copy. Real’s product also competes with the digital copy inclusion provided by studios in order to entice more buyers to select DVDs.

Real contends that as part of their merchandising agreement, users are not permitted to make unauthorized copies of the digital duplicates that they make. However, Real has a difficult battle ahead of them since they need to prove that the copying software is legal. However, the DVD Copy Control Association encrypts DVDs in order to forbid consumers from copying DVDs. The proceedings are expected to close towards the end of the week.

Read: [PC Magazine]