When it comes to making personal copies, U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel left that totally gray—that is, she chose not to rock the boat on whether or not making personal copies actually falls under the "fair use" doctrine of the DMCA. Lots of "mays" and "whiles" in there:

"So while it may well be fair use for an individual consumer to store a backup copy of a personally owned DVD on that individual's computer, a federal law has nonetheless made it illegal to manufacture or traffic in a device or tool that permits a consumer to make such copies."

So DVD ripping is kind of like laws about pot in some places: It's sorta legal to possess in certain circumstances, but not kosher to sell it. Thanks for clearing that up, judge.

What that means for Real, and their long-term plans—a box that archives DVDs—is even murkier. [Wired, NYT]

RealPlayer SP is the evolution of the long-running RealPlayer software, which has become a multi-limbed beast of a program: It's a media manager and player, along with a packaged web browser, a subscription and a la carte music store (Rhapsody), a gaming store (Real Arcade), an audio recorder, and now a streaming video ripper/converter with ties-in to social networking sites. It is at the moment Windows only, though we're assured a Mac version is forthcoming. The beta comes in two versions: One is free, and the other costs $40 and includes H.264 conversion, DVD playback and DVD burning.

The SP stands for Social/Portable, so you can get a hint of where they're going with all this. In addition to RealPlayer itself, the software integrates a button to rip video into your browser (Firefox, Chrome, and IE are supported, Opera is not, no word yet on Safari). This new addition includes a converter to pretty much every portable video format you could imagine, from BlackBerry to Symbian to iPod to Zune.

Where RealPlayer SP is convenient is in this video conversion, especially if you've got a more niche phone or PMP (and I certainly do). Normally, conversion to Zune-supported video is kind of a pain in the ass, but RealPlayer SP handles it easily and well. For newer devices like the Palm Pre and BlackBerry Bold, RealPlayer SP can pass the converted video right through to the player, while it's able to go through iTunes to get video onto an iPhone or iPod touch. Older or less common devices, like my BlackBerry Curve 83xx and my Zune, are still supported, but you'll have to copy the new video files over manually.

The problem with this new iteration of RealPlayer isn't the new features, it's the underlying RealPlayer media software. iTunes, Zune, MediaMonkey and WinAmp are all better and more full-featured media jukeboxes, and unfortunately, Real's new focus on streaming video is new to that category of software but certainly not new to any of us. Hell, Firefox has had extensions that can do the exact same thing for years, with admittedly weaker codec support.

I also wasn't thrilled with the conversion speed or efficiency. Real claims a 1x conversion time, meaning 1 minute of video will take 1 minute to convert, which is actually quite pokey. A 3.2MB music video took 3.5 minutes to convert, and I ended up with a 6.6MB file. Sure, it's not a big deal for such a tiny video, but it feels like it should have been far snappier.

RealPlayer SP is also tied in to various social networking sites, but it's pretty half-assed: For Twitter, it just provides a link to the page of the video you downloaded, along with some prime advertisement for Real that kind of makes you sound like a jackass. The default tweet is "just downloaded so-and-so video with RealPlayer!" followed by a link to the RealPlayer download site. So get ready to follow every single one of those Twitter posts with "Clarification: I do not work for Real."

Really, the new features in RealPlayer SP aren't bad at all. It's a good idea to integrate streaming video ripping into a media jukebox, and RealPlayer SP does about as good job at it as we could ask. But the overall package needs some work: RealPlayer SP is way too bloated to work as just a video ripper/converter, and as a media jukebox it's outdated and cumbersome. Real has a good idea here, but RealPlayer needs more than some flashy add-ons. We'd love it if Real would put out the SP features in a simple applet, and leave off the browsers and media managers that we don't give a damn about.

So who should actually use RealPlayer SP? If you're a BlackBerry or Zune owner who uses Windows, loves YouTube and is confused by the multitude of third-party video converters, RealPlayer SP would be an excellent choice for getting video clips on your phone. [Real]

After getting cornered with a few leading questions about whether or not RealDVD software is capable of copying rented DVDs (err, yes?), RealNetworks and the MPAA directed the discussion towards the company's plans for Facet, a $300 DVD-ripping player inspired by the massively expensive Kaleidoscape boxes of yore. Real CEO Rob Glaser even went so far as to lay out what's really at stake in this case:

If we're enjoined (from selling RealDVD), it would have very dire consequences frankly for us to ever be in this business.

And this is just a preliminary hearing. Essentially, if the court rules against RealDVD, then Facet—and its software, which would presumably be licensed to other DVD player manufacturers—would be dead in the water. Moreover, the precedent could make any DVD backup solution much more difficult to bring to market. Shitty, all around.

But the more I think about it, the less this strategy makes sense. Testing the waters with a low-stakes product isn't a bad idea in itself, but RealDVD is the wrong low-stakes product for the job. Real claims that Facet copies DVDs to an internal HDD, but offers absolutely no means by which these files could be shared—they're DRMed, disconnected from the outside world a locked in an actual box. RealDVD, on the other hand, copies films to your PC's drive and wraps them in iTunes-style DRM, which allows playback on up to five machines. That opens opens a piracy angle for the MPAA—one that could conceivably swing the case in their favor, killing RealDVD and precluding production of Facet for reasons that don't even apply to it. [CNET—Photo courtesy of Greg Sandoval/CNET]

The arguments centered around fair use: Real claimed that making a bit-for-bit copy of the film, which is what their software did, falls under that umbrella. The studios claim that fair use does not include decoding a movie from any media besides the original DVD — something what RealDVD enables. Far from the legal victory or even protracted, public battle that Real was hoping for, the decision will likely hold into the foreseeable future. [Wired Threat Level]

In a small victory for Real, they got the case moved out of the studio-infested Central District to California's Northern District court. Now they just have to convince the studios and the judge that the extra DRM sprinkles it piles on top of the rips make RealDVD totally kosher. [Electronista]

The stakes for RealNetworks aren't terribly high either, as sales of RealDVD might have been slow because of, oh, I don't know, the mountains of free software that does a better and more complete job. Within the day, Real filed a countersuit which could possibly set a new precedent for the interpretation of the Hollywood's DVD license. Even in a best-case scenario, the most legal headway that could probably be made would be to permit neutered software like RealDVD, which would still leave any useful method of DVD backup well outside of the law. [NYT]

For $50, or $30 for a limited time, RealDVD allows you to rip standard DVDs in perfect quality to your hard drive (no Blu-ray), complete with bonus features, menus and such. The process takes anywhere from 10 to 40 minutes and requires 4-8GB of space. The catch is that these video files can only play in Real's player and cannot be converted for use by your other devices, like iPods or phones.

RealNetworks' solution is that you can buy four additional licenses for $20 apiece to view your content on other PCs. And it's not a very good one.

Then again, it's important to note that this is the DVD copying solution that the industry has allowed. And even with the strict limitations in place, it's surprising that you don't need to have the actual DVD in the drive to play the ripped files. [RealDVD]

The costume looks pretty great and even includes details like the gun and face shield, but check out the guy when he takes off the outfit. Yeah, someone needs to work out some more. – Jason Chen

Thanks Ian!

The service will offer either individual song downloads for 99 cents apiece or a monthly unlimited subscription service for $14.99 per month. Good luck—that is all I have to say. – Travis Hudson

BestBuy to launch music service with Real, Sandisk [Reuters]

RealNetworks, SanDisk to take on iPod [Via dapreview]