MAY 7 | PHYSICAL: The presiding judge in the lawsuit between RealNetworks and the Hollywood studios over DVD ripping software RealDVD has ordered RealNetworks to pay monetary sanctions for destroying evidence in the case.
In granting part of the motion filed by the major studios, Marilyn Hall Patel on Tuesday ordered RealNetworks to pay studio legal fees related to its claims that RealNetworks destroyed the notebooks of one of its former program managers. The notebooks contain a timeline and details of RealNetworks' plans for the DVD-ripping software and Facets, a DVD player that would allow consumers to rip movies from discs and save them to the player’s hard drive for later playback.
In the ruling, Patel noted that RealNetworks has told the studios it plans to introduce the player to market soon and had asked the court in a December hearing to include the Facets player as part of the RealDVD lawsuit, a motion she granted.
Patel ordered both parties to come up with a policy for preserving evidence going forward. Patel dismissed a studio request to impose monetary sanctions on RealNetworks for circumventing ARccOS and Ripguard DVD copy protections in addition to CSS copy protection.
RealNetworks and the major studios are due back in court today for the hearing over the legality of DVD-ripping software RealDVD. A decision isn’t immediately expected.
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