In a court ruling that favors Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which filed a copyright law violation lawsuit against RealNetworks in 2008, US District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel has issued a permanent injunction, prohibiting RealNetworks’ sale of its RealDVD, the contentious DVD-copying software.

The lawsuit, filed by six Hollywood movie studios, had alleged that RealDVD software promoted the pilfering of DVDs by allowing users to make copies. However, RealDVD had argued that the product only allowed users to make backup copies of movies on their PC hard drive.

Last year, the US District Court for the Northern District of California had granted a preliminary injunction against RealDVD sales; saying that the product not only violated federal law, but also a license agreement that RealNetworks had signed with the DVD Copy Control Association.

Hailing the verdict by Judge Patel, the MPAA’s general counsel Daniel Mandil said that the ruling “affirms what we have said from the very start of this litigation: it is illegal to bypass the copyright protections built into DVDs designed to protect movies against theft.”

Meanwhile, in a Wednesday statement, RealNetworks said that it had worked out a $4.5-million legal settlement with the MPAA; and added that it would henceforth discontinue the sale of its RealDVD software. In addition, the company also said that the $30 apiece that 2,700 people had spent on the purchase of RealDVD will be reimbursed.