Film Studios Sue to Halt DVD Rip Service for iPods

A group of movie studios has filed a lawsuit against tiny iPod service firm Load ’N Go Video, demanding that the latter party stops loading DVDs onto iPods.

Load ’N Go Video sells DVDs and iPods and loads the movies onto the iPods for customers for an extra fee. Customers then receive the iPod and the DVD they then legally own in a package through the mail.

Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Studios, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Disney Enterprises, Columbia TriStar Television and Columbia Pictures are claiming that ripping the DVD to the iPod is a case of copyright infringement.

Critics note that the studios are effectively attempting to force consumers to buy the same content twice—once on DVD, and another time in a format suitable for the iPod, perhaps eventually through the iTunes Store.

A movie studio spokesperson denied this, saying the suit isn’t against consumers, but against a business that is offering unlawful DVD-ripping services.

-Macworld staff, Macworld.co.uk

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