You have to love the clueless way the entertainment industry stumbles along. Real Networks is trying sell - yes, sell - software that would allow you to rip DVDs to your HD. The entertainment industry objects, of course:

The case is ostensibly about RealDVD, a $30 software program that allows users to save digital copies of Hollywood DVDs to their computers — a capability the movie industry strenuously objects to, worrying that it will stimulate piracy and undermine the budding market for digital downloads.

Right. How does making it legal for me to rip a DVD I already own cut into digital sales? Do they actually think people are going to swap DVDs around in large numbers? Do they actually think people are going to buy a digital copy of a movie they already own because they have a long trip ahead of them, and they'd rather not cart a box of discs around?

Do they simply not know that Handbrake is around, and already lets you do this? Last year, I was headed overseas to a conference, and I wanted to watch the new Stargate DVD we had just bought while I was on the plane. I didn't want to cart the disc with me - why would I? I had already paid for the movie, but in the parallel reality inhabited by the MPAA, I should have paid again, to get the bits onto my HD.

Idiots.

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