RealNetworks, Film Industry Headed To Court 173
netbuzz writes "Apparently tired of waiting to be sued by the movie studios over its new DVD-to-PC copying software, RealNetworks this morning announced it will file a preemptive lawsuit in an attempt to authoritatively establish that the product does not infringe on copyright restrictions. Within an hour or so, the Motion Picture Association of America said it would have a litigation announcement of its own this afternoon."
Whuh? (Score:5, Informative)
When did Real become non-evil?
(RealPlayer for Linux is actually a really good media player. Works well, plays everything, none of the quasi-spyware behaviour it was famous for on Windows. CULTURE SHOCK!)
Great! (Score:5, Informative)
*continues to use DVD Shrink [dvdshrink.org] for free anyway since it has no DRM*
Re:wait just a minute here (Score:5, Informative)
You misread. You pay "$20 per computer" that you want ALL of your ripped DVDs to play on. It's per additional computer that you want authorized to get past thier own DRM crap.
Re:The law allows for some strange stuff (Score:3, Informative)
I wouldn't have guesses that you could preemptively sue someone who could sue you. Makes me see Jack Thompson from a different light, maybe he was just having fun with the legal system.
That's for example what happened between Linux and SCO in Germany with excellent effect.
SCO: We will sue all Linux users!
Linux: Sue or shut up.
Court: Sue or shut up. If you don't sue and repeat any claims, there will be a fine.
SCO: Mostly shuts up; from time to time SCO Germany messes up, links to files of SCO US, pays a fine.
Re:Great! (Score:5, Informative)
*cough*thepiratebay*cough*dvddecrypter*cough*anydvd*cough*magiciso*cough*
Ahem, excuse me. Had a bout of whooping cough there for a second...
Speaking as a once paying customer of Real (Score:5, Informative)
I bought RealJukebox and really liked it. The license said I had access to upgrades for the lifetime of the product. This purchase included the full version of RealPlayer too, with no adverts.
Then they changed the license terms within months (at the time they introduced OnePlayer) and said I had to repurchase at full price if I wanted to upgrade to OnePlayer. Oh, and they discontinued RealJukebox, and I wasn't allowed to update my copy of standalone realplayer either without paying the full licence fee again.
I wouldn't have minded a small upgrade fee I guess, although I would have grumbled, but I paid a fair bit for my original licence, and I was pissed off that it got junked so fast.
The chances of my paying for or using a RealNetworks product again are pretty much nonexistant.
That's what Red Hat did to SCO (Score:5, Informative)
When SCO was going around saying they were going to sue Linux users for vague, unspecified "IP" claims, Red Hat preemptively sued SCO, telling them, essentially, to put-up-or-shut-up about their claims.
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=169 [groklaw.net] (from 2003).
Re:Great! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:With the eventual outcome (Score:3, Informative)
Judge: ---Really? Never heard of you. $10 million or 40,000 innocent souls to the MPAA, to be paid by Friday.
10,000,000/40,000 = $250
I was wondering what the market value of an innocent soul was these days.
Re:Great! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:RealNetworks? More like ROFLNetworks... (Score:3, Informative)