By BRAD STONE Published: April 23, 2009 The New York Times
SAN FRANCISCO RealNetworks says it wants to help increase DVD sales by allowing people to copy their movie discs. Hollywood studios say that idea will only hurt their already struggling business. The two sides square off in a federal court here on Friday to determine who prevails.
The case is ostensibly about RealDVD, a $30 software program that allows users to save digital copies of Hollywood DVDs to their computers — a capability the movie industry strenuously objects to, worrying that it will stimulate piracy and undermine the budding market for digital downloads.
But the outcome of the trial, set against the backdrop of plummeting DVD sales, could also have more far-reaching effects on the future capabilities of the DVD player — a device connected to millions of television sets.
Before it started making RealDVD software for computers, Real was also developing DVD-saving software that it hoped to license to manufacturers of DVD players, according to the company’s executives and legal filings in the case.
That software, which the company refers to by its internal name, Facet, would allow companies like Sony, Samsung and Toshiba to sell DVD players capable of making digital copies of all discs, even movie DVDs that have anticopying software, called C.S.S.
The owners of those devices could save copies of their DVDs to watch later — much as people use digital video recorders like TiVo to save live television programs.
Real has built a prototype of a Facet device that runs on the Linux operating system, which is used in many digital set-top boxes. The device can hold about 70 movies, which take up to 20 minutes to copy.
RealNetworks executives have said they were inspired by Kaleidescape, a Sunnyvale, Calif., company that makes high-end DVD players (the price is more than $10,000) that can save hundreds of movies on a hard drive. Kaleidescape was challenged by the DVD Copy Control Association, which administers the C.S.S. encryption, but won. Read more
