The Associated Press

Fri, Jan 9, 2009 (4:45 p.m.)

RealNetworks Inc. Chief Executive Rob Glaser is still confident that people will be able to use the company's RealDVD software to copy DVDs to their personal computers _ just not now.

In an interview with reporters at the International Consumer Electronics Show, Glaser said he expects that the digital entertainment company will win a suit filed against it in October by six major Hollywood studios.

He also said that if the company needs to make small changes to its software so that it can be sold, it will, "but we don't anticipate any," he added.

The studios argue that the software allows video pirating. The program was launched at the end of September and let consumers copy DVDs that could then be played on up to five computers per user.

Seattle-based RealNetworks has said the software does not remove or alter the "content scrambling system," or CSS, encryption that is included on commercial DVDs. It filed a suit against the studios at the same time they brought their joint suit against the company.

RealNetworks is currently subject to a temporary prohibition on the distribution of the software, which a federal judge in San Francisco put in place in October. Glaser said Friday he expects an injunction hearing will be held in that city in March.

Glaser also said that before it released RealDVD, RealNetworks "assessed there was some risk" of a lawsuit from Hollywood studios regarding the software, but "tried to avoid it."

The studios that sued RealNetworks are Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures, Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures, News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox, General Electric Co.'s Universal, The Walt Disney Co.'s Disney studio and Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros.

A spokeswoman for the Motion Picture Association of America Inc. could not immediately be reached for comment.