• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, October 6, 2008

Round one of the lawsuit between the movie studios and RealNetworks goes to Hollywood, with a federal judge in California temporarily ordering Real Networks to stop selling a program that allows people to copy their DVDs.

The movie studios argue that the program defeats the software that they've put in place to prevent people from making copies, in violation of a federal law that bans people from circumventing DRM. RealNetworks counters that the program makes copies without stripping out the DRM, so it doesn't technically circumvent anything.

Clearly, both sides can legitimately argue over the meaning of "circumvent." And it's certainly possible that RealNetworks has the losing side of that dispute. After all, if DRM software is designed to prevent copying, then launching a program that makes a copy certainly seems to circumvent the purpose of the DRM.

But what's not clear is why the movie studios think this battle is worth fighting. If nothing else, consumers who use RealNetwork's DVD-ripper still have to obtain a disc -- whether by purchasing one, renting one or borrowing from a friend, all of which are perfectly legal -- before they can copy it.

Besides, enterprising consumers already have plenty of ways of copying DVDs and totally stripping out DRM. These versions, unlike those made by RealDVD, can easily be shared by many people.

In an age when movies appear on peer-to-peer sites on opening day, Hollywood has bigger problems than RealNetworks' DVD ripper.