Written by Chris Albrecht
Posted Saturday, October 4, 2008 at 9:21 AM PT

Court Temporarily Shuts Down RealDVD

A court has ordered RealNetworks to temporarily suspend distribution of its controversial RealDVD product until Tuesday so that the judge can review all of the papers filed in the case, according to an email from a RealNetworks representative. A visit to the RealDVD site shows a message from the company saying “RealDVD is currently unavailable.”

RealDVD, which allowed users to make personal copies of DVDs landed in legal hot water water with Hollywood as soon as the product became available this past Tuesday. Real and the Hollywood studios launched dueling lawsuits almost simultaneously, with Real getting the first punch in, pre-emptively asking for a declatory judgment and the studios wanting sale of the product blocked, saying it violates copyrights.

Yesterday, Real scored a small legal victory by having the case moved from a Central District Court of California in Los Angeles (the studios’ home turf) to a Northern District court, where the company hopes to find a more favorable setting.

Now we wait and see what happens Tuesday, and whether the blocking of the product will be extended and if so, for how long.

Unfortunately, this means that if you were one of the people who obtained a code from us for a free trial of RealDVD, those codes will not work.

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Topic: Hitlines, Legal

Comments (4)

I doubt they’re going to move many of these even if the order is lifted. Then again, this continued publicity amount to a lot of advertising. People who want to “archive” already know how and everyone else is blissfully ignorant.

Dave Zatz — 10:18 AM on October 4, 2008 Reply
all of this is great PR for Real — a company that desperately needs it. However, if this service somehow comes back online, any consumer with half a brain is really going to have to question whether plunking down the money on something that can go away with a snap of the fingers is worth it.

Steve M. — 10:21 AM on October 4, 2008 Reply
Can you guys post a copy of the order?

Richard Koman — 7:53 AM on October 6, 2008 Reply
Thats total b/s you can make coppies of CD’s so whats so special about the movie industry whats makes them better than music?

Tyle — 2:54 PM on December 18, 2008 Reply

Linkbacks (23)

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