Motion Picture Association of America

The Full Valenti: Dodd Trades His Olive Branch to Tech for a Howitzer, After SOPA/PIPA Gets Delayed

Kara Swisher in Media on January 20 at 11:32 am PT

What would Jack do? (And would it work anymore?)

Hollywood Groups Weigh In on FCC Internet Reclassification

Kara Swisher in News on August 12, 2010 at 5:35 pm PT

An alphabet soup of entertainment-industry groups submitted filings to the Federal Communications Commission today as part of its request for comment on a framework for broadband services. Specifically, whether or not to reclassify the Internet as a telecommunications service, which would trigger all kinds of juicy regulatory power. There are all kind of complex issues at stake, from net neutrality to piracy to open Internet to broadband access.

Rent. Rip. R.I.P.: RealDVD Takes a Dirt Nap and RealNetworks Ordered to Pay Hollywood $4.5 Million

John Paczkowski in News on March 3, 2010 at 3:01 pm PT

The Motion Picture Association of America has finally, and permanently, dispatched RealNetworks’s “legal” DVD ripper, RealDVD. On Wednesday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall, who in January dismissed Real’s antitrust claims against Hollywood, really dropped the hammer on the company, issuing a permanent injunction barring it from manufacturing or trafficking in RealDVD.

The Judge Was Wrong: RealNetworks's RealDVD Appeal Document

Kara Swisher in News on November 10, 2009 at 3:48 pm PT

RealNetworks just lobbed its appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals in the case revolving around its DVD-copying software, RealDVD. A U.S. District judge issued a preliminary injunction against RealNetworks in August to stop sales, and renewed it in October. In the appeal, which is embedded after the jump, RealNetworks said the judge was using the wrong legal standard and more.

Rent. Rip. Restraining Order.

John Paczkowski in News on October 6, 2008 at 11:38 am PT

The legal broadside Hollywood lobbed at RealNetworks last week has upset the company’s carefully prepared plans to offer a mainstream means of legally copying DVDs. A judge has issued a temporary ban on sales of Real’s RealDVD software in the wake of a lawsuit brought against it by the Motion Picture Association of America.

StealDVD? Well, You Were Asking for It…

John Paczkowski in News on September 30, 2008 at 12:24 pm PT

Just hours after RealNetworks filed a preemptive lawsuit against the major Hollywood studios to avoid outcry over its RealDVD DVD-ripping software, Hollywood responded in kind. The Motion Picture Association of America asked a federal court in Los Angeles for a temporary restraining order to halt the sales of RealDVD, arguing it illegally bypasses DVD copyright protections. Said the MPAA, “RealNetworks’ RealDVD should be called StealDVD.”

Sue. Rent. Rip. Return.

John Paczkowski in News on September 30, 2008 at 10:01 am PT

Turns out RealNetworks Inc.’s new DVD ripper RealDVD is as legal as its creator is litigious. Real debuted RealDVD this morning and along with it a preemptive lawsuit against the Hollywood interests that will inevitably attempt to litigate it into oblivion. Brought against the DVD Copy Control Association and a who’s-who of major studios, the suit asks the court to rule that RealDVD complies with the DVD Copy Control Association’s license agreement.