[Infowarrior] - More MPAA-induced idiocy

[Richard Forno]

More idiotic MPAA shenanigans -- though the best line is this:

In the RealNetworks litigation, the studios allege in heavily redacted  
court documents that RealNetworks trashed a senior project manager's  
"engineering notebooks," an archive containing "actual code files" and  
other documents, one of which might reveal "Real's products are based  
in part on the work of … hackers."

These idiots sound like the talking-points-spouting (and generally  
clueless) Secret Service agent from the movie "Hackers" (no pun  
intended).   After all, 'hackers' are all evil, out for no good, and  
bad people, right?

-rf

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/03/realnetworks-we.html

RealNetworks: 'We Didn't Think' MPAA Would Sue Over DVD Copying Software
By David Kravets EmailMarch 23, 2009 | 6:52:18 PMCategories:  
Intellectual Property

Dvd SAN FRANCISCO -- RealNetworks told a federal judge on Monday it  
didn't think it would be sued by the Motion Picture Association of  
America for marketing DVD copying software.

Seattle-based RealNetworks made the argument in federal court here as  
part its defense against allegations it purposely trashed evidence in  
a copyright lawsuit brought by the MPAA in September. The suit claims  
RealNetworks' RealDVD software is illegal and allows users to  
circumvent technology designed to prevent the copying of DVDs.

RealNetworks made its surprising claim Monday because, under rules of  
evidence, companies must retain records if they believe they are going  
to be sued. The MPAA claims RealNetworks destroyed a host of documents  
relating to RealDVD's production -- well before the MPAA sued it in  
September.

"We didn't think litigation was probable," Leo Cunningham, a  
RealNetworks attorney, told U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel  
during a brief hearing.

The MPAA, however, usually sues any and all companies and individuals  
connected to what it perceives as a threat to the DVD.

Its litigation tactics have defeated every BitTorrent tracker in the  
United States. Its sister group, the Motion Picture Association,  
helped the Swedish authorities bring criminal charges against four  
founders of The Pirate Bay.

In the RealNetworks litigation, the studios allege in heavily redacted  
court documents that RealNetworks trashed a senior project manager's  
"engineering notebooks," an archive containing "actual code files" and  
other documents, one of which might reveal "Real's products are based  
in part on the work of … hackers."

Regarding the notebooks, their disappearance is "a mystery,"  
Cunningham told the judge during the brief hearing. He neither  
confirmed nor denied whether any other documentation was destroyed.

Bart Williams, an MPAA attorney, told Patel that it was obvious the  
MPAA would sue RealNetworks. He said RealNetworks should have known as  
such, even from the time of the product's initial development two  
years ago.

"This was not some theoretically possibility," Williams said. He also  
said, "They knew there would be a lawsuit."

Patel did not hint at whether she would find RealNetworks violated  
rules requiring the retention of documents.

The MPAA, which is known for its heavy hand at litigation, is seeking  
unspecified monetary sanctions and other penalties from RealNetworks  
as part of its lawsuit against the DVD copying software. A hearing on  
the lawsuit's merits is scheduled for next month.

After days on the market and 3,000 copies of RealDVD sold, Patel  
blocked its distribution in October pending the outcome of the ongoing  
litigation. The MPAA alleges the product violates the Digital  
Millennium Copyright Act because it circumvents the content-scramble  
system license granted to RealNetworks by the DVD Copy Control  
Association.

The Seattle company said its software does not circumvent encryption  
software in violation of the DMCA. The software allows users to store  
copies of movies on their hard drives, which the company says is a  
fair use allowed under the DMCA.

A central dispute in the case concerns whether it is an circumvention  
violation for RealDVD to copy the DVD encryption into a computer hard  
drive that allows playback of the movie at any time absent the  
original disc. The MPAA says the content-scramble license requires  
that the keys to the encryption code must be read from the DVD while  
the DVD is inside the computer.