Los Angeles - The six major Hollywood movie studios have sued the maker of a new software program that allows people to make digital copies of their DVDs, according to reports Wednesday. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Los Angeles by Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Studios, Warner Brothers, Columbia Pictures, the Walt Disney Company and Sony. They alleged that the program RealDVD by RealNetworks violates the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act because it bypasses the anti-copying mechanism built into DVDs.
The studios alleged that the software would cannibalise the sale of DVD's and deal a death blow to their emerging business of digital downloads by allowing people to rent and copy DVDs instead of buying them.
"RealDVD should be called StealDVD," Greg Goeckner, executive vice president and general counsel for the Motion Picture Association of America, said in a statement. "RealNetworks knows its product violates the law, and undermines the hard-won trust that has been growing between America's moviemakers and the technology community."
RealNetworks said the program allows users to make backup copies of favorite discs or take movies along on a laptop while traveling. It also said that RealDVD conforms to Hollywood's rules on DVD protection by encrypting the digital copies, which prevents unlawful online file-sharing.
"We are disappointed that the movie industry is following in the footsteps of the music industry and trying to shut down advances in technology, rather than embracing changes that provide consumers with more value and flexibility for their purchases," RealNetworks said in a statement.
