Often, the court that hears your case can determine whether you win or lose. RealNetworks just improved its chances in a lawsuit against Hollywood studios over its recently launched RealDVD software. The software lets you rip DVDs to your computer so you can play movies from your hard drive or turn your PC into a digital media server.

The suit was originally going to be heard in the Central District Court of California (Los Angeles), but the judge there ruled that the case be moved to the Northern District (Silicon Valley). Why? Because RealNetworks beat the studios to the punch by about an hour and 15 minutes in filing essentially the same lawsuit on the morning of September 30 against Viacom and the DVD Copy Control Association in a Northern District Court. By filing preemptively, RealNetworks now has a chance of drawing a judge more sympathetic to the arguments of technology lawyers than Hollywood lawyers.

The product itself is not likely to become a blockbuster, but it does address a certain niche. (Read our review). Most people still don’t have enough spare hard drive space to store a complete library of DVDs on their PCs, but they will soon. And it comes complete with its own flavor of DRM. Whatever you think of the product, there is a strong argument to be made that consumers should be able to convert DVDs into digital copies just as they can do the same with CDs of music. That is the issue at stake in this lawsuit.

RealDVD hasn’t even been available for more than an hour and already Hollywood studios are upset about the ramifications it could have on the industry.

According to a statement released by RealNetworks, it has filed suit against Hollywood studios asking the court to rule that RealDVD “fully complies with the DVD Copy Control Association’s license agreement.” The suit was filed against DVD Copy Control Association, Inc., Disney, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, and Twentieth Century Fox to name a few.

In its defense, RealNetworks claims RealDVD “allows consumers to securely store, manage and play their DVDs on their computers” and “does not enable users to distribute copies of their DVDs.” It was also quick to point out that RealDVD adds another layer of DRM that locks the user to their own computer to make the program even more stringent.

Rafat Ali over at PaidContent is reporting that RealNetworks has acquired Listen.com for $36 million in a cash and stock transaction. Earlier this year RealNetworks made an investment in Listen.com. Listen.com includes the Rhapsody music service.

Rafat notes, "As part of the agreement, Listen.com’s management team will be joining RealNetworks. CEO Sean Ryan will continue to lead the Listen.com team as VP of music services as part of the RealOne division. Rob Reid, founder of Listen.com, will join RealNetworks as VP of strategic development. Listen.com will remain in San Francisco and will continue to operate music services for its customers and distribution partners."

Rafat has more commentary on the distribution partners and what the deal means for Real — basically upsell potential for consumers into other Real services.

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Perhaps influenced by The New York Times recently setting its Web site free, Rupert Murdoch chimes me too. He’s still leaning towards banishing the Wall Street Journal’s online subscription model. [Reuters]

Source:Valleywag

Gracenote runs the service that automatically fills in song names, musicians, and album names when you rip a CD to your PC’s hard drive. Without it, we’d be stuck spending years entering CD track data manually. But the company is no longer without competition — and it just lost a big client to a rival. Gracenote has been discreetly dropped by RealNetworks. A tipster alerts us that RealPlayer and Rhaposdy are now using All Media Guide’s identification service, Lasso. Real joins a growing list of AMG adopters, including Sony and Apple. It’s no surprise that the music services, facing thin margins, are shopping around.