Movie studios need to get real

01-10-2008

by Ralph Averbuch

It's not like, with a modest bit of effort, it's impossible to back up DVDs to a PC today. It's about as complicated as grabbing ISO images of the disc and then using freely available software, such as the VLC media player, to view them. There are all sorts of downloadable bits of software which will rip DVDs and let you transcode them for all sorts of devices. So you might wonder why would RealNetworks decide to launch a USD30 package that lets you back up your DVDs to your PC? Well, fact is they have, and, in what looks like an exercise in gathering visibility, have taken out a suit against the movie studios to make their point. Of course the movie studios are having none of it and are counter-suing. But it all seems very much after this particular horse has bolted. Why try to make legal precedent when the practical reality is that movies have, are, and will continue to be ripped to all sorts of devices because it's quite simply convenient for the consumer? DVDs are not the most robust of objects. Perhaps it would be better to allow legitimate owners to legally back up their DVDs or to save them to USB memory keys or whatever else suits their needs. Even if the movie moguls win this battle with RealNetworks they have already lost the war. Copy protection and restrictive usage policies do not endear themselves to the average consumer, the vast majority of whom are happy to be law-abiding where that law isn't so clearly an ass. RealNetworks' new RealDVD program is simply a visible example of how poorly the entertainment industry understands how to exploit their medium in the digital, always-on age.