VCAM members trying to stay abreast of the latest on copyright in the digital age will be interested in knowing Warner Brothers, Walt Disney Company and Sony recently decided to sue RealNetworks to prevent them from selling software that enables people to make digital copies of their DVD’s.

This past Tuesday Brad Stone from the New York Times reported:

RealNetworks, the company behind RealPlayer software and the Rhapsody music subscription service, said RealDVD gives users the freedom to do things like make backup copies of favorite discs or take movies along on a laptop while traveling. It has argued that RealDVD is now legal because of a favorable decision last year in a case against Kaleidescape, a Silicon Valley-based manufacturer of high-end media servers.

“We are disappointed that the movie industry is following in the footsteps of the music industry and trying to shut down advances in technology, rather than embracing changes that provide consumers with more value and flexibility for their purchases,” RealNetworks said in a statement Tuesday.

Stone continues to say the studios argue RealDVD violates the 1998 Digital Millenium Copyright Act because the software circumvents the encryption added to DVD’s to prevent copying.

“RealDVD should be called StealDVD,” Greg Goeckner, executive vice president and general counsel for the Motion Picture Association of America, said. “RealNetworks knows its product violates the law, and undermines the hard-won trust that has been growing between America’s moviemakers and the technology community.”

It’s important to note that last Tuesday RealNetworks decided to countersue the studios arguing RealDVD adheres to the Millenium Copyright Act because the digital files produced by the software contain their own encryption designed to prevent unlawful online file sharing.