RealNetworks Ups The Ante; Wants To Add Antitrust Charges Against The MPAA

from the your-move dept

With the lawsuit between the movie studios and RealNetworks off to an inauspicious start, it looks like RealNetworks decided to pull out the nuclear option: it's trying to add anti-trust charges against the movie studios to the case. The company claims it's come across evidence that the studios colluded to boycott RealNetworks and its attempt to let people back up their legally obtained movies. It would be interesting to know the details behind the evidence, as it could make the case a lot more exciting pretty quickly.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: antitrust, collusion, dvds, mpaa
Companies: mpaa, realnetworks


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    bob, 14 May 2009 @ 3:37am

    I hope They Do Have It

    Evidence That Is.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      NPGMBR, 14 May 2009 @ 7:34am

      Re: I hope They Do Have It

      Me too but it doesn't change the fact that Real still sucks.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 15 May 2009 @ 5:23pm

        Re: Re: I hope They Do Have It

        You might change your mind if they do get the MPAA on anti-trust.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 14 May 2009 @ 5:21am

    I'm so torn with this one

    ... do I side with the company who's software hijacks all media on my computer, makes my systray light up every few seconds and just generally annoys the heck out of me? Or do I side with the media mafiaa.

    Decisions, decisions...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 14 May 2009 @ 5:30am

    ... do I side with the company who's software hijacks all media on my computer, makes my systray light up every few seconds and just generally annoys the heck out of me? Or do I side with the media mafiaa.

    Just like any sort of election, it's sometimes better to choose the lesser of two evils. At least you can remove REAL software from your computer.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    DigitalRAGE, 14 May 2009 @ 5:40am

    You can also remove the MPAA by not going to the movies this summer, by not watching tv, and by not buying movies. Once the movie studios loose their cash flow they will get rid of the MPAA like a bad case of craps.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Greg G, 14 May 2009 @ 6:07am

      Re:

      Yea, call me a spelling/grammar nazi, but I can't take it.

      It's not "loose their cash...," it's "lose their cash..."

      loose: not tight.
      lose: unsuccessful in retaining possession of

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Pjerky (profile), 14 May 2009 @ 8:04am

      Re:

      DigitalRAGE, you are a hoot. You honestly think that if they start loosing a ton of money they will get rid of the MPAA. You honestly have not been paying attention over the last few years. No, they won't get rid of it, they will rely on it more to prosecute anyone that they can find to accuse of hurting their business. They will never admit their own mistakes and take full responsibility for it. That is not the way of the Entertainment Industry.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 14 May 2009 @ 10:35am

        The grammar Nazi is right ....

        We are all playing fast and loose with our o's when trying to express the loss of something. Or perhaps it is correct in saying that they will not be tight with their money.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 14 May 2009 @ 5:43am

    Antitrust

    I've always wondered why more people didn't bring antitrust suits against the content cartels. What they do in hindering new technologies for data distribution is clearly less about "piracy" and more about stopping anyone who is unlicensed by them from competing in the space. They have a death-grip on their monopoly on distribution, yet they're never called on it.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Tim, 14 May 2009 @ 6:01am

    Wonder if this would work with the way that the DRM is deliberately excluding Linux from being able to play Blueray and DVD. Seems like they are boycotting Linux to me

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 14 May 2009 @ 6:06am

      Re:

      But you can get a copy from the A-hole and play that on Linux ...

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 14 May 2009 @ 6:11am

    "exciting pretty quickly."

    Since the opposite of pretty which is a type of beauty is ugly could you pleas explain what ugly quick is? If you can not explain that then you have no definition of "pretty quickly". Does that mean very quickly" Or does that mean slow quickly? Or has has someone hit "Quickly" over the head with a pretty stick?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 14 May 2009 @ 6:21am

    I dont use any realnetworks software as it does tend hog resources, but I hope they win this case!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    David Lee, 14 May 2009 @ 6:48am

    Anon Cow -- You're an idiot.

    Go away.

    wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

    - pleasing by delicacy or grace; not imposing; "pretty girl"; "pretty song"; "pretty room"
    - reasonably: to a moderately sufficient extent or degree; "pretty big"; "pretty bad"; "jolly decent of him"; "the shoes are priced reasonably"; "he is fairly clever with computers"
    - used ironically) unexpectedly bad; "a pretty mess"; "a pretty kettle of fish"

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    wammer, 14 May 2009 @ 7:20am

    RICO the RIAA and the MPAA

    They can't stop us!!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 14 May 2009 @ 7:25am

    7 year court cases are not often exciting.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Esahc (profile), 14 May 2009 @ 8:16am

    I'm almost willing to install Real on my computer, if only to show support.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Paul Brinker, 14 May 2009 @ 9:11am

    if this works can we?

    Start braking up other groups that work like this? Its easy to say there is price fixing going on, and im rather sure that music and DVDs will end up costing the same no matter who you go through because if you charge to little there going to try to take away your media.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    formation seo, 3 Nov 2012 @ 12:46pm

    Vraiment sympa ce blog, où peut on trouver plus d information sur ce sujet ? Merci 1000 fois ! Continuez !

    agence webmarketing http://hebergeurwebdev.wordpress.com agence de référencement

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.