EDITOR’S NOTE
Flares have to be going up in Hollywood. RealNetworks, Inc., the digital media company that markets
the Rhapsody music service, unveiled a fresh threat
to the movie industry this September. The company
is introducing RealDVD, $30 software that will let
consumers make a copy of a DVD on a home computer.
The movie industry well knows that the ability to digitally
copy music albums led to file-sharing and the weakening of
the music industry. Film studios are heavily dependent on
$16 billion in DVD sales to consumers annually, and have
encrypted DVDs with digital locks to prevent copying.
Robert Glaser, the CEO of RealNetworks, says that Hollywood shouldn’t worry. Copies of DVDs on a portable hard
drive can be viewed only on up to five machines (the user
has to buy the RealDVD software for each machine), but
the content can’t be uploaded.
Movie studios are unlikely to be reassured. Once again,
the action will probably move to the courts. RealNetworks
felt encouraged, industry observers say, after the DVD Copy
Control Association lost a lawsuit last year to Kaleidescape,
a Silicon Valley start-up that sells a high-end server to make
and store digital copies of movies. That case is on appeal.
In fact, challenges of all kinds just keep multiplying for
the owners of IP. Trademark owners are facing a monu-
mental and confusing test over the next year because of
the expected proliferation of generic top-level domain
names (TLDs). In this issue we offer an interview with
Paul Twomey, the president of the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), as well as advice
from the ICANN executive in charge of implementing
the program. It was surprising to me to learn that ICANN
will not be considering in the application process whether
a proposed new TLD is a trademark in any country, but,
hey, what do I know about encouraging competition in the
Internet space?
These challenges and others will be considered at an IP
Law Review conference sponsored by IP Law & Business on
October 29 and 30 in New York. (Details are available at
almevents.com/iplawreview.) I hope to see you there.
Pamela Sherrid, Editor
pamela.sherrid@incisivemedia.com
CORRECTION: In “Taiwan Catches Auction Fever” in our September issue, we
reported incorrectly on the number of U.S. patents issued last year to ITRI. It
ranked ninety-first overall, and ninth in bioscience patents. We regret the error.
