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34-780: Universal and Sony created PressPlay rather than joining RealNetworks ' online service MusicNet , which had signed BMG , EMI and AOL Time Warner . It was originally announced under the name Duet in May 2001 and launched as PressPlay in December 2001. Apart from Universal and Sony, the service carried some music from BMG, EMI and Warner, as well as various independent labels . It was branded for multiple services, most notably Yahoo.com . The service allowed users 500 low-quality audio streams in DRMed Windows Media Audio , 50 song downloads and 10 songs burnt to CD, for $ 15

68-518: A PC game distribution application that allows users to play casual video games for free for 60 minutes, then decide if they want to purchase them. Many of the games were developed by GameHouse, which RealNetworks acquired for $ 35.6 million in 2004. In 2010, RealNetworks re-branded its games division under the name Gamehouse. It began focusing on social games, such as Facebook applets, and in 2013 acquired casual casino games company, Slingo, for $ 15.6 million. On September 30, 2008, RealNetworks launched

102-492: A different company's copyright control mechanisms. RealNetworks, Inc. v. Streambox, Inc. has been cited as an important precedent on the functions of the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act , but with some criticism of how it favored copyright owners at the expense of new technological innovations that could benefit the general public. The ruling was cited as

136-708: A mobile phone app called Listen in April 2014 that plays custom ringtones to those calling the user's phone. On December 21, 2022, RealNetworks was taken private by founder and CEO Rob Glaser. RealNetworks has its headquarters in Seattle, Washington, in the Home Plate Center building in SoDo across from T-Mobile Park , sharing the building with local television station KING-TV and Logic 20/20 Consulting. Notable RealNetworks employees have included Alex Alben ;

170-457: A month. It could also build and store users' playlists. Not every song could be downloaded, and users could not burn more than two tracks from the same artist to CD. Downloads expired after 30 days. Songs could not be transferred to a portable player. Artists were paid around $ 0.0023 (0.23 of a cent) per song. Many artists, outraged at this rate and stating their songs were being used without proper permission, sought to have their music removed from

204-645: A monthly fee. In January 2004, RealNetworks announced the RealPlayer Music Store , featuring digital rights management (DRM) restricted music in the AAC file format. After some initial tries to push their own DRM scheme (named Helix DRM ) onto all device manufacturers with the Creative Zen Xtra and the Sansa e200r as the only existing compliant devices, they sparked controversy by introducing

238-499: A new product called RealDVD. The software allows any user to save a copy of a DVD movie they own. The company was later found to have violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and RealNetworks' contract with the DVD Copy Control Association , as the software also allowed anyone to save a movie they do not legally own. (See RealNetworks, Inc. v. DVD Copy Control Ass'n, Inc. ). The product's distribution

272-403: A portion of their catalog to other, more successful online music stores such as Streamwaves ' Christian music service HigherWaves, FullAudio and Streamwaves' full product. Roxio acquired the service on May 19, 2003, and used it as a base to launch their paid music service under the brand name Napster , and in 2004, Sony launched its Sony Connect service. The disastrous history of Pressplay

306-545: A service that enables Internet users to circumvent the copyright protection controls used by a streaming platform. RealNetworks was an early innovator in streaming media , and in the late 1990s developed a paid service that allowed users to stream copyrighted audio and video files with the authorization of the copyright owners; the users would not be able to make copies of the audio and video data. RealNetworks used proprietary formats, including .rm ("RealMedia") for audio files, that were intended to be difficult to copy as

340-545: A technology called Harmony that allowed their music to play on iPods as well as Microsoft Windows Media Audio DRM-equipped devices using a "wrapper" that would convert Helix DRM into the two other target DRM schemes. Real Networks acquired Dutch game company Zylom for $ 21 million in February 2006. It became part of GameHouse . On April 6, 2010, Rhapsody was spun off from RealNetworks. In July 2013, RealNetworks acquired Slingo for $ 15.6 million. The company introduced

374-426: Is a reverse engineered package. In November 2011, RealNetworks' case against Edskes was dismissed and RealNetworks was ordered to pay him €48,000 in damages. Details of the case and judgement have been published. RealNetworks appealed the case in 2013, this time alleging that Edskes was after all involved in uploading Real Alternatives. Edskes countered that while his automated script did upload Real Alternatives,

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408-648: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act had been enacted in the meantime, while the technology at issue in the Sony case ( video cassette recorders ) did not circumvent someone else's copyright protection mechanisms. The court found that the Streambox VCR product was a violation of the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, because it captured files that had been designed as copy-proof streaming media, and

442-425: The download manager RealDownload, was already used for pushing small software, such as games, to subscribers' computers. On top of the subscription for RealDownload and using its RealVideo streaming technology, a service called GoldPass, including unlimited access for video snippets from ABC and movie previews, was offered to registered users for a monthly $ 10 fee. More content was added through deals with CBS for

476-764: The Helix open-source code and the Helix Universal Server, which hosts, distributes and manages digital rights for multimedia content. Helix competes with the Windows Media 9 Series from Microsoft, but has a greater emphasis on open-source. Helix was announced in July 2002. Support for mobile devices was added in November 2005. It was discontinued in October 2014. In 2000, one of the initial products,

510-748: The Internet was in the Real format. Despite this success, problems arose because RealNetworks's primary business model depended upon the sale of streaming media server software , and Microsoft and Apple were giving those products away. As servers from Microsoft and Apple became more capable, Real's server sales inevitably eroded. In RealNetworks, Inc. v. Streambox, Inc. in January 2000, RealNetworks filed an injunction against Streambox, Inc. regarding that company's product designed to convert Real Audio (.rm) formatted files to other formats. On December 4, 2001,

544-602: The Ripper that converted the captured files from the RealNetworks proprietary formats into more easily used file types including .wav and .mp3 . Streambox also offered a product called the Ferret that added a user interface to the RealNetworks platform, enabling users to manipulate the RealNetworks streams in various ways. RealNetworks claimed that its own service was intended to serve as a copyright protection control for

578-478: The audio streamed by. Streambox was an audio/video company that responded to consumer demand for the ability to capture streaming media, like that available from the RealNetworks service, and to save the resulting files on one's own computer to be played on other devices. Streambox developed a product called the Streambox VCR that allowed users to copy .rm and other proprietary file types that were stored on RealNetworks servers. Streambox offered another product called

612-628: The company was to launch the first coordinated effort to sell and deliver music from major record labels over the Internet, part of a broader initiative by the company to develop subscription Internet services aimed at Web users with fast Internet connections. In 2002, a strategic alliance was formed between RealNetworks and Sony Corporation to expand collaboration. In October 2005, Microsoft agreed to pay RealNetworks $ 460 million to settle an antitrust lawsuit. In August 2003, RealNetworks acquired Listen.com's Rhapsody music service, and renamed it RealRhapsody . It offered streaming music downloads for

646-538: The company's initial public offering (IPO) in October 1997 when shares of the company started trading on Nasdaq as "RNWK". RealNetworks were pioneers in the streaming media markets and broadcast one of the earlier audio events over the Internet, a baseball game between the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners on September 5, 1995. They announced streaming video technology in 1997. According to some accounts, by 2000 more than 85% of streaming content on

680-402: The content of the message and sorts it into categories to determine which ones are more important, and prioritize message delivery. In March 2021, RealNetworks unveiled KONTXT for Voice to identify and stop scam robocalls. RealNetworks on September 24, 2013, launched RealPlayer Cloud, a service that adds the ability to share videos recorded on smartphones and tablets. RealPlayer Cloud ties into

714-484: The distribution and use of Streambox's VCR, Ripper, and Ferret products. During the proceedings at the district court, Streambox attempted a fair use defense by claiming that its products simply enabled RealNetworks users to play files at their leisure, comparing this practice to the time-shifting of broadcast TV media that is permitted per the 1984 Supreme Court precedent Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc . The court rejected this argument because

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748-426: The existing RealPlayer; however, it also has a Web app and apps for Android, iOS and Roku. The service has 2GB of free cloud storage and more storage for a monthly fee. It was renamed to RealTimes on May 19, 2015, with a new focus on creating and sharing "Stories"—video collages of users' personal photos and videos, set to background music. RealNetworks entered the computer game market in October 2001 with RealArcade,

782-450: The first Chief Privacy Officer of Washington State ; Tony Fadell , the inventor of the iPod ; musician Daniel House ; and Philip Rosedale , the founder of Linden Lab . The domain real.com attracted at least 67 million visitors annually by 2008, according to a Compete.com study. Launched by RealNetworks on July 17, 2018, SAFR – Secure Accurate Facial Recognition, is a machine learning facial recognition platform. The SAFR platform

816-622: The owners of music and video copyrights, and that the Streambox products circumvented that protection mechanism in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act . RealNetworks also claimed that its own copyrights had been infringed because Streambox's services illegally altered its software. RealNetworks filed suit in the District Court for the Western District of Washington and sought a preliminary injunction to prohibit

850-500: The reality show Big Brother and NBA basketball. RealNetworks, Inc. v. Streambox, Inc. RealNetworks, Inc. v. Streambox, Inc. , 2000 WL 127311 (W.D. Wash., 2000), was a copyright law case of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington , over the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and whether those provisions are violated by

884-534: The service unless they were paid a licensing fee rather than a CD-style royalty. Even before it was launched, the restrictions meant the service was not attractive to consumers. PressPlay and rival MusicNet were given the shared 9th place in PC World's 2006 list of the "25 Worst Tech Products of All Time", which stated that "the services' stunningly brain-dead features showed that the record companies still didn't get it". Universal and Sony had also licensed at least

918-482: The user's computer and did not interact with the RealNetworks platform. Thus, the court granted RealNetworks' motion for preliminary injunctions against the VCR and Ferret products offered by Streambox, but not the Ripper product. While Streambox was not responsible for contributing to the copyright infringement committed by its users, per the Digital Millennium Copyright Act it had engaged in prohibited circumvention of

952-419: The web server was deliberately configured to keep the file unavailable to public. He audited the uploads and deleted Real Alternatives before he was raided in February 17, 2010. Therefore, he was never committed unauthorized distribution. Helix is a suite of streaming media software and services intended for digital TV set-top boxes, mobile devices, as well as QuickTime, Flash and other programs. It includes

986-548: Was "primarily, if not exclusively, designed to circumvent the access control and copy protection measures that RealNetworks affords to copyright owners." The VCR was also found to circumvent a RealNetworks protocol called "Secret Handshake" that intended to verify and authenticate use by approved RealNetworks customers. The court also ruled that the Streambox Ferret product, by acting as a plug-in that its own customers could attach to RealNetworks' proprietary software,

1020-473: Was a violation of the copyright protection enjoyed by RealNetworks for its own software design. This was found to be an alteration that did not qualify as transformative use under the fair use defense for copyright infringement. However, RealNetworks was unable to claim that it had suffered harm from the Streambox Ripper product, which the court found to be a file management system that operated on

1054-474: Was barred by a court injunction. Real Alternative is a discontinued software bundle that allows users to play RealMedia files without installing RealPlayer. The last version, 2.02, was released on February 19, 2010. It included Media Player Classic . Beginning in 2010, RealNetworks sued Hilbrand Edskes, a 26-year-old Dutch webmaster, for having inserted hyperlinks to Real Alternative on his site www.codecpack.nl. RealNetworks alleges that Real Alternative

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1088-568: Was founded in 1994 by Rob Glaser , an ex- Microsoft executive, and a management team including Phil Barrett, Andy Sharpless, and Stephen Buerkle. The original goal of the company was to provide a distribution channel for politically progressive content. It evolved into a technology venture to leverage the Internet as an alternative distribution medium for audio broadcasts. Progressive Networks became RealNetworks in September 1997, in advance of

1122-617: Was later detailed in How Music Got Free by Stephen Witt, from the viewpoint of Universal Music CEO Doug Morris . RealNetworks RealNetworks LLC is an American technology company and provider of Internet streaming media delivery software and services based in Seattle , Washington . The company also provides subscription-based online entertainment services and mobile entertainment and messaging services. RealNetworks (then known as Progressive Networks)

1156-544: Was updated in 2020 with COVID-19 response features, including the ability to detect whether a person is wearing a mask and identify people wearing masks with 98.85 percent accuracy. On April 27, 2021, SAFR received a grant from the US Air Force to develop its AI-powered analytics for rescue missions, perimeter protection and domestic search operations. In 2017, RealNetworks launched Kontxt, a product that offers management of text messaging in mobile networks. It identifies

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