By Joshua S Hill Oct 6, 2008, 17:21 GMT
In what is not necessarily a surprising move, a federal judge has granted Hollywood studios a temporary restraining order against RealNetworks’ attempts to sell their new product, RealDVD. The program allowed users to copy DVD’s to storage on their computers, without breaking the DVD’s encryption.
RealNetworks had filed a suit of their own the morning of release, last Tuesday, hoping that a judge would rule in their favor and clear up whether the software was in fact illegal.
RealNetworks had filed a suit of their own the morning of release, last Tuesday, hoping that a judge would rule in their favor and clear up whether the software was in fact illegal. Major Hollywood studios filed suit later that afternoon, looking for a full injunction against the company.
The ReadlDVD website is now displaying a message exclaiming the product is “currently unavailable,” with the following message:
Due to recent legal action taken by the Hollywood movie studios against us, RealDVD is temporarily unavailable. Rest assured, we 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.
RealNetworks has come away with a win in all this though. The case was transferred from the Central District of California, based in Hollywood-friendly Las Angeles to the Northern District in San Francisco or Oakland, Silicon Valley-friendly territory. This will at least provide a judge capable of dealing properly with technology issues.
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