[Infowarrior] - RealNetworks accuses MPAA of antitrust violations

[Richard Forno]

May 13, 2009 7:27 PM PDT
RealNetworks accuses MPAA of antitrust violations
by Greg Sandoval

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10240490-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

RealNetworks has accused the major film studios of antitrust  
violations in documents filed Wednesday with a federal court.

Real, a software company known best for the company's video and music  
player, has asked U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel for permission to  
file an amended second complaint against the six largest film studios  
as well as Viacom, the entertainment conglomerate and parent company  
of Parmount Pictures.

Real has been involved in a legal conflict with Hollywood over its  
release last year of RealDVD, a software that duplicates DVDs and  
stores the copies on a computer hard drive. The Motion Picture  
Association of America claims that RealDVD violates copyright law. The  
two sides have met in court this month so Patel could determine  
whether to remove an injunction placed on the sale of RealDVD. She  
halted sales last September, days after the software first went on sale.

An MPAA representative was not immediately available and a Real  
spokesman declined to comment.

In the latest filing, Real accuses the studios as well as the DVD Copy  
Control Association, a group dedicated to protecting DVDs from piracy,  
of violating the Sherman Antitrust Act, the federal statute designed  
to limit cartels and monopolies.

"RealNetworks has become aware of facts demonstrating that the DVD CCA  
and the Studio Defendants have engaged in both a horizontal group  
boycott of RealNetworks," Real said in it's filing. "The testimony of  
the Studio Defendants during the preliminary injunction hearing  
further confirmed the existence of a horizontal conspiracy."

Real alleged in the document that the studios were guilty of anti- 
competitive practices when they agreed to block anyone from making  
copies of DVDs without their say so.

"(The witnesses) unambiguously," Real said in the court  
filing,"confirmed the Studios' position that the (Content Scrambling  
System) License Agreement (which is needed to legally make copies of  
DVDs) resulted from a joint agreement among the Studios to prohibit  
all copies of DVD content unless the Studios jointly authorize the  
making of such a copy."


Greg Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. He  
is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles  
Times. E-mail Greg, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sandoCNET 
.