Judge upholds RealDVD sales ban

The temporary sales ban issued earlier this week on RealDVD has been extended for at least another month. According to reports, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel (known for presiding over the original Napster litigation) upheld the decision after reviewing documents related to the case and concluding she is not “satisfied that [the] technology is not in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.”

The injunction is now in place until at least November 17, after which another hearing should take place to determine if the software violates the DMCA’s prohibition on circumventing copy protection schemes and whether or not a permanent ban on sales is necessary. RealNetworks, for its part, maintains that their software is legal because the original CSS encryption of the copied material is left intact.

While the MPAA has succeeded (at least for now) in blocking the sale of RealDVD, Hollywood is still reeling from other free and paid programs widely available online – such as Handbrake or AnyDVD – that simply crack the encryption on DVDs to let users create a backup copies of their media.