‘Big’ Hollywood Kills RealDVD?
by Ken BlackwellA while back, I authored a post here on Big Hollywood about the movie industry’s battle against RealDVD, an innovative technology that, if permitted to exist, would allow DVD owners to make personal “backup” copies of their movies, while simultaneously adding an encryption to discouraging piracy.
In September of 2008, calling it “StealDVD,” the big Hollywood (no pun intended) studios filed suit against RealDVD.
And this past Tuesday — as PC World wrote – RealDVD was dealt a “devastating blow” when U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel “granted a preliminary injunction against sale of RealDVD, pending a trial over copyright infringement.”
It’s too soon to know what will happen, but it appears the movie industry has the upper hand. But is it a victory they cannot afford to win?
As I noted months ago, the irony is that by opposing RealDVD, the movie industry seems to be operating against its own long-term self-interest. As consumers desire more freedoms and options, the most successful companies are embracing the societal changes. Meanwhile, the movie industry has adopted a very un-progressive posture and is hunkering down and simply suing the innovators.
Whereas the music industry seems to have learned that swimming against the modern-day consumer’s demand is a fool’s errand, the movie industry is doubling down. As PC World noted, “It’s perfectly legal to rip music from a CD and upload it onto an iPod for personal use; why can’t a person do the same with their own copies of movies?”
iPod owners own the right to make a certain number of personal copies of their music. Systems are in place to prevent mass piracy. RealDVD would essentially do the same thing. Again, PC World hit the nail on the head, writing that RealDVD allowed “only a single digital copy to be placed on your hard drive. After paying extra licensing fees, you could transfer the digital copy onto as many as five other hard drives. Disc-based burning was never an option.”
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Hollywood has long presented itself as “cool” and “cutting edge,” yet when it comes to guiding their own industry, they seem mired in a 20th century mindset. The irony here is that instead of allowing a legitimate and innovative company flourish, the movie industry will likely find that more and more piracy sites will emerge and that fewer and fewer people will be buying what they are selling.
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19 Comments
I haven't seen a movie in years that was worth the price of a blank DVD to copy it to.
All that the movie industry has done is really make me wish I could buy realDVD
Ken – great post. This is a complex subject and I have found no simple solution in my own mind. I do respect the copywrite "rights" of artists and srudios, etc. That said, big "corporate" Hollywood has shown remarkable short sidedness and greed. I hated Song – BMG for putting spyware on some of their compact discs. I also believe, if you buy a Rolling Stone l.p. record, you shouldn't have to keep buying it again and again just to keep up with modern playback devices.
Again the movie industry shows how short sighted they are, and how they love cutting off their noses to spite their faces.
I guess instead of using an industry sanctioned program for backing up my DVDs (or copying them to a movie file server for my own legal, personal use) one that will include encryption that will keep me from distributing the files or burning copies for my friends I'll be stuck using one of the many freely available DRM/copy protection free programs like Handbrake http://handbrake.fr/ (for ripping) and DVDFlick http://www.dvdflick.net/ (for burning).
There are plenty of programs out there to copy a DVD. Germany puts out some great ones.
They did the same thing with file sharing. Since 90% of the movies and music they put out is crap, I'd download it and see if it was worth going to the movies to see. That was the only way to be sure… it's gotten to the point where they will even put things in the trailers that are not in the movies and reviews are not even close to being trustworthy. Or I'd see if the song I like is on an album worth listening to, or is the only song on the disk that isn't worthless. But since they have shut down most of the good file sharing utilities… I just don't go to the movies and haven't bought a CD since morpheous p2p was ruined.
Great perspective. Wanted to say that I miss being able to fill in the bubble next to your name here in Ohio. You had my vote in 06 and you'll have it again in the future if that's the road you choose. Thanks for all you've done for Greater Cincinnati and for Ohio. You continue to make us proud.
Various copy programs are not going away. Not the least of which is that Linux and FreeBSD never have DVD decrypters (required to playback DVDs) released for their operating systems. So programs and libraries are released in places like the EU or what have you outside US jurisdictions, and users have to go through the tedium of installing them to play DVDs (they purchased) on Linux or the various BSDs. Since both OS's can be used to extend the useful lifespan of computers (say a 512MB RAM laptop) in budget-pinching times, the pressure will only grow. Naturally the DVD decryptor libraries required for playback are adapted by others for copying.
Hollywood is doing just what the music industry did — forcing people to torrents, and other illegal sources instead of convenient and low-cost places. Yes, the music industry lost their margins as the tide of cheap copying technology rushed in, first via cassette tape, then CD and mp3 copying, but the onrushing tide was entirely predictable. And just as the music industry only makes a small profit margin on the best-selling songs, not albums with huge markup, so too will Hollywood in the future only make money on a few big hits not niche stuff like say, Milk or Revolutionary Road or the Reader.
Probably Hollywood's future profits will be in fee-for-service, i.e. producing serial or movie form content for an advertiser who GIVES AWAY the content, FREE, because it has the "ad baked in" to the content. Ala the short films with Clive Owen driving the BMW or the Transporter co-starring the Audi. The product being a co-lead character. Heck in the latter the villain even sneers at "his beloved car" (of the hero). This means huge paydays for minor actors (and even Brad Pitt) are going away. But that's clearly where things are going — after de-massifying culture and content, technology is now swinging the other way, towards mass content and culture, because it allows "FREE" (with ads baked in) to beat pay anytime. But particularly in dollar-scarce times.
Makes me miss Clean Films.com.
I love how Hollywood shoots itself in the foot. And when I say "love…" I'm not serious. At all.
Change we can believe in!!!! bwahahahahah, I have not watched a movie that I would want a copy of over the last year except maybe GRAND TORINO…..who cares if Spike Lee does not like it!!!! MUAHAHAHHAHAHA
if spike lee does not like it – I must have it !!!!!!!
Hollywood executives really need to pull their heads out of the sand. It's like this nonsense about 3-D being the wave of the future of cinema. No it's not. It's because you're afraid of piracy. Give consumers the option of seeing a film in the cinema, on DVD, or online and you'd be surprised at how well the films will perform. And if it means keeping morons on their computers so I can go to the cinema without being disrupted by their shenanigans, so be it.
The only movies worth seeing in the past 5 years are coming out of ENGLAND!!! Or other countries.
Harry Potter is great.
So was Lord of the Rings. NO idea where that one came from, but most of the actors were from England, and Ireland, and it was filmed in New Zealand.
The judge noted, casually (no biggie, nothing to see here, move along) that people have the right to make a backup, but the law is that they cannot possess the tools to make a backup.
yep
people will do it anyway, and since there is no "legal " way to do it, Oh well.
http://the2minshate.blogspot.com/
Ken – great post. This is a complex subject and I have found no simple solution in my own mind. I do respect the copyrite "rights" of artists and srudios, etc. That said, big "corporate" Hollywood has shown remarkable short sidedness and greed. I hated Sony – BMG for putting spyware on some of their compact discs. I also believe, if you buy a Rolling Stone l.p. record, you shouldn't have to keep buying it again and again just to keep up with modern playback devices.
and Hollywood wonders why the people are turning to torrents and other sources to get movies.
I probably have an unpopular opinion but I also don't like Hollywood's reaction to companies who edit content in movies. If you purchased it from the editing company you would get the original DVD movie and the edited version for a few more bucks than you would find it in stores. From my understanding of the process, the studios still made their money from DVD sales. The only complaint was that Directors out cried that it was infringing on their creative piece but there are many movies that are good movies but they put in unnecessary language, violence, sex, etc. I'm not saying make the movies G or PG just toned down so I can watch it without feeling like I need to wash my ears out with soap. (I know it's a copyright issue like everything seems to be…*sigh*)
Somehow, the music industry figured out that spending money are DRM was an arms race they were never going to win. No matter how much time and money you spend, the infinite resources of the Internet will always defeat your scheme. As a result, you can know legally purchase DRM-free mp3s from places like Amazon.
Apparently, the movie industry is not paying attention.
They can't allow the 'classic' movies to be so easily enjoyed. They have to enshrine the pap of new and better releases. Good luck RealDVD.
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