Hey it's Rob again.

I'm writing to give you an update on RealDVD. There have been a flurry of legal developments since we introduced the product about 10 days ago. There were also some great reviews. Check them out at Business Week, USA Today, and Laptop Magazine.

Concurrent with us shipping RealDVD, the major Hollywood studios sued us and we sued them... The first ruling happened last Friday when a Judge in Los Angeles agreed with our position and moved the case that the studios had filed in Southern California up to Northern California, where we had filed our case.

Then, that day the new Judge (Marilyn Patel) put in place a temporary restraining order (TRO) that meant we had to temporarily stop shipping RealDVD until she could sort things out. On Tuesday, after a further hearing in Court, Judge Patel decided to keep the TRO in place until she can review the matter in more detail at the more extensive preliminary injunction hearing. This hearing is a normal part of the process and would have occurred with or without the TRO. We think this review will take place in December.

Judge Patel told us she had been unable to determine exactly what the RealDVD technology does and whether it complies with our license rights. Judge Patel also said she wanted to understand the issues and technology better and that it would take some time for the attorneys to prepare the evidence she wanted to see. While she heard Real's arguments about its desire to resume shipping RealDVD, the Judge stated that she does not want us to ship the product until she has the opportunity to review more evidence. She believes that the potential harm to the studios (if they are right) is greater than the potential harm to us (if we are right). While we disagree with her harm assessment, we have turned to preparing to present the evidence she wants to see that address core issues at hand.

The core issue we will prove in the next phase is that RealDVD is a completely legal product. It is properly licensed by the nonprofit group created around the DVD standard - the DVD Copy Control Association (CCA). RealDVD follows the guidelines and rules set by the DVD CCA. We feel that once we prove this we will be in a strong position.

In a similar case decided in 2007, Kaleidascape proved that they followed the DVD CCA's rules. As a result a Judge in Northern California agreed that their product was legal; it remains on the market today.

Because this is an active litigation matter, I can't say everything here that I want to say, of course. But in closing, let me say the following: we won the first round, but we lost the second round. There are more rounds to come. Our team is ready to answer the bell in round three and we look forward to presenting our case. We believe that we are in the right and remain very optimistic that we will eventually prevail.

If you want to help support our efforts at making RealDVD available, please email us at RealDVDSupporters@real.com. We will collect your name and email address and keep you posted as circumstances arise that need your support.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and for caring about RealDVD.

Rob

        

Ever since Internet music became the norm and wildly popular over the last decade, artists have flocked to get their music up on iTunes, Rhapsody, the legal Napster, and all of the latest social networking sites. After all, with physical CD sales on the decline, artists need the digital avenue. 

        

Hi everyone. This is my first post to the RealNetworks Blog.

I've wanted to post before, but life (usually one of our two-year-old twins) keeps intervening. But today's events were too important for me to keep quiet. I believe great products should NOT be bullied out of the market by people trying to misuse the law to suppress legitimate innovation.

Today we launched RealDVD, an exciting new product that turns your PC in to the best way to enjoy your DVDs. I'm very proud of the great work our product team did to create RealDVD. Check it out at realdvd.com if you haven't already.
For more information on RealDVD's features, check out our press release and the RealDVD site.

While I'm happy that today is an exciting day, in some ways it's even more exciting than we would have wanted it to be! This morning we were forced to file a lawsuit against six major U.S. movie studios to ensure that nothing gets in the way of us providing RealDVD to consumers.These studios and their trade association (the MPAA) have filed suit against us trying to stop RealDVD.

As a company with a nearly 15 year track record of innovation that's both great for consumers and fully respectful of intellectual property, we're disappointed that the movie studios thought they had to file lawsuits. We began active discussions with the studios even before we announced RealDVD and up until last night were optimistic that we could find common ground with them without having to resort to the legal system.

Hopefully we can resolve these matters quickly. I hope to keep you posted in the days ahead, at least as much as our lawyers let us.

In the interim, here's what you can do:

• If you have a Windows PC, try RealDVD (it's free for 30 days).
• Tell us what you think at RealDVDFeedback@real.com.
• If you want to help us keep RealDVD available, please e-mail us at RealDVDSupporters@real.com. We will collect names and keep you posted as issues arise that need your support.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and for your support.

Rob

        

Today we officially launched RealDVD, a completely legal DVD copying product that saves the entire DVD file, with the CSS encryption, to your hard drive. RealDVD is going to be great for anyone who travels, anyone who travels with kids, anyone who owns DVDs who has kids, movie collectors, and people like me who have crappy laptop battery time. I've had a chance to use RealDVD over the last few months on many a plane ride and hotel stay. I can tell you- it's actually pretty cool. << MORE >>

It's no secret that the economy is giant mess right now. People are worried, budgets are tighter than Pam Anderson's dresses and everyone is afraid of how bad it could get if the other shoe drops (and let's face it, the shoe hanging by the big toe is freaky enough).<< MORE >>

This past weekend I was in Las Vegas for BlogWorld Expo. That's right. There's a convention for bloggers. It was geeky and it was pretty dang fun too. I was able to listen to lectures from bloggers from Yahoo, Intel, Kodak, Facebook, Dell, Mashable, and many other great companies. It was really cool for me to hear how they run their blogs, what's worked for them and what might work for us at Real. One theme kept coming up: people love a good story, something they can relate to. My cabbie on the way home from SeaTac brought this to life.

        

        

I'm an avid music fan. I come from a family where music runs through our veins and listening to The Doors while decorating the Christmas tree is completely normal. Growing up in Sarasota, Florida, I was fortunate enough to be ensconced in an odd and exciting little music scene.

        

In the third installment of my dissection of the making of a casual game I got  artsy with 3 of GameHouse's finest: Steve Van Horn, Sr. Director of PC Games, Andy McCulloch, Art Director, and Jesse Holt, King of One Liners Resident Sound Designer and Composer. Andy and Jesse are 2 of the team members who make these game really beautiful. This is their take on how to bring the art and sound of a casual game to reality.

        

Installment #2 of Rock Star Guide to the Galaxy was posted recently on Rhapsody's Play blog. This time, Lauren Tabak profiles Baltimore hip hopper Aaron Lacrate. The videos follow Aaron around Baltimore's flea market on a hunt for forgotten records. We travel to neighbhorhoods of Lacrate's friends, and see the real Baltimore. We eat crab, go to clubs and are educated about where not to walk when you're alone.