RealNetworks, Inc. v. Streambox, Inc.
United States District Court for the Western District of Washington
No. 2:99CV02070 (2000)
RealNetworks (plaintiff) developed streaming media software allowing content owners to use a security feature called Copy Switch to prevent end users from downloading and copying RealMedia files, permitting only streaming; Streambox (defendant) created the Streambox VCR, which circumvented Copy Switch and RealMedia's authorization procedures, letting users download copies of files even when content owners had specifically disabled downloading. RealNetworks sued under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and Streambox raised a fair-use defense, arguing its VCR had legitimate non-infringing uses analogous to a physical VCR's time-shifting function.
Whether the Digital Millennium Copyright Act prohibits the manufacture or distribution of a product that is primarily designed to circumvent a technological access-control measure, has only limited commercially significant non-circumvention uses, or is marketed for circumvention use.