Technologizer » RealDVD

Real Loses RealDVD Case

Harry McCracken — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:54:57 +0000

RealDVD, the DVD-copying software which I reviewed and sort of liked during the five minutes in 2008 it was actually for sale, is dead. Real has settled with the Motion Picture Association of America and a permanent injunction bars it from ever selling the software again.

Bad news for Real, and equally bad news for consumers. Bad news for copyright laws that aren’t kind of a joke, too: Real tried to make Hollywood happy and its product was sued into extinction, but with Handbrake alive and well, bootleg movies are at least as commonplace as bootleg hooch during Prohibition…

Kaleidescape Loses in DVD-Copying Battle, Too

Harry McCracken — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:09:52 +0000

For years, the high-end consumer-electronics device known as Kaleidescape has provided good reason to wish you were filthy rich. Starting at around $8,000 but mostly going way, way up from there, the systems let you store DVDs to hard disks and browse and watch them from multiple TVs around your house. But the DVD-copying aspect–which can be approximated with free software and a cheap network drive–was only part of the product’s appeal. What really made it interesting was the software, which sported one of the slickest, most thoughtful user interfaces this side of Cupertino. It’s like what Apple TV might be on an unlimited budget, if it let you enjoy the DVD movies you’d already bought rather than making you pay to download them again.

Now Kaleidescape has suffered a court defeat to Hollywood, just a day after RealDVD (which is a sort of poor man’s Kaleidescape in software form) did. Two years ago, Kaleidescape won a rare victory relating to DVD-copying in the digital age, but a California state appellate judge has overturned that decision. As I understand it, the Kaleidescape case doesn’t involve questions of fair use but whether Kaleidescape abused the license it obtained from the DVD Copy Control Association for CSS, the encryption standard used to lock up DVDs. But I’d still rather see products like RealDVD and Kaleidescape win in court than lose. The ruling won’t force Kaleidescape to pull products off the market immediately, and could be overturned.

Greg Sandoval’s piece on Kaleidescape and RealDVD at Cnet has one shred of sort-of-good news: Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, who ruled in the RealDVD case, said that she wasn’t saying that consumers definitely don’t have the right to back up their DVDs under certain circumstances. But here’s a bit of big-picture optimism: The Betamax case which established fair-use ground rules for copied movies in the first place got all the way to the Supreme Court before Sony (and, indirectly, consumers) scored definitive victory over the studios. Let’s hope that both Kaleidescape and Real have plenty of fight left in them.

RealDepressing: RealDVD Loses a Round in Court

Harry McCracken — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 03:05:58 +0000

The New York Times’ Brad Stone is reporting that U.S. Federal District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel has ruled against RealNetworks in the lawsuit filed by the movie studios against RealDVD, its software for copying DVDs to your hard drive. Judge Patel granted the studios a preliminary injunction against Real selling the software, which seems like kind of a formality given that she stopped Real from selling it almost as soon as it went on sale last September.

RealDVD isn’t a tool for pirates. Actually, it adds an extra layer of copy protection to prevent you from doing anything except copying a movie to one hard drive for viewing on one computer at a time. (You can’t even put the movies on a shared drive to watch them from multiple computers on one network.) The court is apparently inclined to look askance at even a fundamentally hobbled (albeit easy-to-use) DVD copier.

Meanwhile, tools like Handbrake let large numbers of people copy DVDs without any of RealDVD’s measures against sharing the digital copies with friends or tossing them onto BitTorrent for the world to download. I also remain unclear on why Telestream’s Drive-in–which is, basically, a Mac version of RealDVD except that it also comes in a multi-user version–is still around when RealDVD is apparently too dangerous to be let onto the market while Real waits for a final ruling. Maybe it has something to do with RealNetworks being a relatively large company that might actually succeed in getting ordinary folks to use its software?

Meanwhile, the RealDVD site lives on in forlorn limbo, complete with a woman gamely smiling on the home page and a guided tour of the product. The site says the app is “temporarily unavailable” and that Real “will continue to work diligently to provide you with software that allows you to make a legal copy of your DVDs for your own use.” I hope that means that the company will soldier on with both this case and the countersuit it filed against six Hollywood studios on antitrust grounds. Whether or not you ever use RealDVD–or even if its limitations would drive you a little bonkers–any victories it scored in court would be great news for consumers. And if it loses, the message will be that there are absolutely no circumstances under which law-abiding consumers can make a copy of a DVD they’ve paid for in order to enjoy it in a new way.

5News for May 18th, 2009

Harry McCracken — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:03:43 +0000

How’s your Monday so far?

Napster launches a $5 service.

What’s with the oldest Twitterer?

Iomega updates external hard drives.

Microsoft patents the magic wand.

Windows 7′s virtual Wi-Fi adapters.

Walmart ramps up electronics sections.

Firefox 3.5 due in June.

Trying to buy Verizon’s MiFi,

RealDVD headed for legal oblivion?

5Words for April 30th, 2009

Harry McCracken — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:00:08 +0000

Google data barges? Love it!

Apple’s becoming a chip company.

Palm’s first post-Pre phone,

Peewee’s convertible laptop for kids.

Google data centers…on boats?

Real’s Glaser testifies on RealDVD.

XP for netbooks isn’t disappearing.

Amazon hikes Kindle document charges.

RealDVD on Trial

Harry McCracken — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 00:38:06 +0000

RealDVD, the DVD-copying application from Real which I reviewed back in September during the brief period it was available before Hollywood stepped in and convinced a court to yank it, is fighting for its life in a San Francisco court. Wired has a good report on the proceedings so far. Maybe I’m just being pessimistic, but reading it leaves me thinking that U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel is inclined to side with Hollywood, not with Real and with the notion that consumers have the right to duplicates DVDs in a way that preserves copy protection, puts extreme limitations on what they can do with the copies, and makes it impossible for them to distribute them via file-sharing networks.

If RealDVD is ruled to be illegal, it’ll be sad. It’ll also be kind of silly. Kaleidescape makes a neat home entertainment system that does something very similar to what RealDVD does–for thousands of dollars. Telestream’s $39 Drive-In is also much like RealDVD–but it runs only on Macs. And we seem to be nowhere near any scenario that involves users of DVD rippers such as Handbrake–which override copy protection altogether–being thrown in jail.

Basically, the only thing that prohibiting release of RealDVD does is to prevent Windows users who aren’t all that well-heeled–and who bend over backwards to respect copy protection–from creating digital copies of their DVDs for personal use. Everybody else can go on merrily copying their movies. Remind me again just what purpose would be served by eliminating it from the market?

5Words for April 24th, 2009

Harry McCracken — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:32:59 +0000

How’s your Friday so far?

MySpace has a new boss.

New Windows 7 hits BitTorrent.

The ObamaBerry is almost ready.

Hollywood vs. ReadDVD: trial underway.

Google Toolbar knows your location.

“Movie Cowboy?” Love that name!

Facebook users approve new policies.

T-Mobile sells one million G1s.

The economy hits the Apple Store.

Hands on with new Ubuntu.

RealDVD Fails to Leave Limbo

Harry McCracken — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:50:10 +0000

This just in: Judge Marilyn Patel of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has ruled to extend the restraining order that prevents Real from selling its new DVD-copying software until another hearing can be scheduled. Bummer. More details when we have them…

RealDVD: Still in Limbo

Harry McCracken — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:01:44 +0000

Here’s a ZDNet story which nicely summarizes what’s up with RealNetworks’ RealDVD DVD-copy software, which was released last week only to instantly become the subject of legal warfare between Real and Hollywood. The basic question: Does RealDVD’s copying, which duplicates a DVD’s contents to a PC’s hard drive while maintaining all copy protection and adding an additional layer to prevent piracy, violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act?

RealDVD has been unavailable since Friday, when the studios won an emergency restraining order which forced Real to stop sales. A Federal judge is hearing arguments on RealDVD’s fate today. I hope the restraining order is lifted; more important, I hope that RealDVD’s legal status is cleared up quickly, and in Real’s favor. The manner of copying it provides is fundamentally limited: You can’t put a movie onto an iPod or a home network, let alone release it to BitTorrent. It’s designed to let consumers get a little more out of the entertainment they’ve already paid for. And if even that runs afoul of current copyright law, it’s pretty darn depressing.

So I’m hoping for the best today. But for the moment, the RealDVD site‘s smiling lady is still the bearer of bad news:

The T-List: RIP, iPhone NDA

Harry McCracken — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 04:53:57 +0000

Last week was one of comings and goings. iPhone NDA? Gone! Windows Cloud? On its way! RealDVD? Here, then gone! Windows XP? Six more months before it might be gone! And iTunes? Still here, thank heavens!

Apple Ends NDA, Doesn’t Disclose All
The blanket non-disclosure agreement that prevented iPhone developers from discussing the platform in public ended last week, when Apple published a statement saying that the company had put it in place to prevent its ideas from being ripped off, but conceding that it was more trouble than it was worth. The change in policy followed increasing discontent over the NDA and its effects and side effects, such as how it had discouraged anyone from publishing books about programming for the iPhone. The end of the iPhone’s all-encompassing NDA is good news indeed, but it doesn’t mean the end of the era of Apple secrecy, or the end of controversy over the company’s iPhone-related policies: As far as anyone can tell, it still maintains that it’s wrong for anyone to develop iPhone apps that are sort of like Apple’s own. But Apple hasn’t explained such reasoning publicly, let alone convinced anyone of its validity. I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again: I still kind decide whether to be giddily optimistic or resolutely pessimistic about the fate of the iPhone as a software platform.

Read more at: Daring Fireball

Here Comes Windows Cloud, Whatever That May Be
At a UK IT conference, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, casually mentioned that Microsoft is working on something code-named Windows Cloud, and would have more news in a month or so. He apparently didn’t really explain what it was, but it seems reasonable to guess, at least, that it might be a portfolio of platform services for Web developers akin to Amazon’s Web Services. I have one prediction: Windows Cloud won’t be a version of Windows that consumers need to think about, any more than they need to keep tabs on Amazon’s services or on Microsoft’s own .Net tools. (Okay, scratch that: I’ve occasionally tried to install software applications and been told my PC needed a .Net update first.) I also have one request: Please, Microsoft, call it something other than Windows Cloud, a name which is destined to sound silly and retro by the middle of 2009 or thereabouts.

Read more at: Mashable, InfoWorld

RealDVD Arrives, Departs For Limbo
I kind of like RealNetworks’ RealDVD software, which was designed to let consumers copy DVDs to their PC’s hard drive without breaking any laws. And now I’m really, really rooting it–because it got ensnared in duelling lawsuits between Real and Hollywood the moment that Real released it last week. At the moment, a court has told Real to pull it off the market altogether, supposedly only until Tuesday. If Real wins its lawsuits, it’ll be only a minor victory for consumer rights–RealDVD both retains existing copy protection and layers on more of it–but if it loses, it’ll be a major setback.

Read more at: NewTeeVee

Windows XP: Not Dead. Again!
It was released in October, 2001–and it’s increasingly feeling like it may outlive us all. Windows XP, which major PC manufacturers still ship as a “downgrade” disc with Windows Vista computers to avoid the wrath of Vista-disparaging businesses, got another new lease on life last week when Microsoft extended the downgrade option’s supposed termination from January 31st of next year to July 31st. Is there any business other than software which regularly pits manufacturers against their customers, with the manufacturers trying to kill off products which the customers still want to buy? The tension between Microsoft and Windows users over XP’s replacement with Vista has felt almost like the New Coke debacle played out in slo-mo.

Read more at: Computerworld

The Day the Music Didn’t Die
Would Apple really shut down iTunes–the country’s largest music purveyor of any sort–rather than raise its prices? It was supposedly willing to when it looked like royalty rates per song might go from nine cents to fifteen. But the Copyright Royalty Board has set the fee for digital downloads at the same price as that for traditional media through 2012, so iTunes lives on, as does 99-cent music. (Although both Amazon and Wal-Mart routinely undercut Apple’s prices while presumably paying the same royalties.) The good news on the iTune front leaves us with more time to worry abou the fate of Pandora and other streaming music sites; they still need a signature from President Bush to avoid royalty hikes that might put ‘em out of business. Sign that bill, Mr. President, and let us move on to other matters!

Read more at: Yahoo Tech

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