Macrovision Shares Fall on RipGuard Review

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/051122/macrovision_mover.html?.v=1
 
Macrovision Shares Fall on RipGuard Review
Tuesday November 22, 3:09 pm ET 
        
Macrovision Shares Drop After Analyst Says Circumvented Company's Copy
Protection Software 


NEW YORK (AP) -- Anti-piracy software maker Macrovision Corp. shares took a
beating in afternoon trading on Tuesday after a Piper Jaffray analyst said
he was able to circumvent the company's copy protection software and
illegally rip, or duplicate, a copy of the recently released DVD
"Madagascar." 



Shares of Macrovision dropped by $1.37, or 8 percent, to $15.11 in recent
Nasdaq trading on three times the average daily volume. 

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster tested a Dreamworks Animation SKG Inc.
DVD of "Madagascar" against various DVD ripping applications on the
Internet. According to Munster, Dreamworks was the first film studio to use
Macrovision's RipGuard, a copy protection application. 


Although RipGuard protected the DVD against two ripping applications,
Munster said he was able to download a free DVD ripper that had been updated
just three days after the "Madagascar" release, specifically to get around
Macrovision's RipGuard. 


"We were surprised to find an easy way to get around RipGuard so soon (three
days) after the release of the DVD," Munster wrote. "In conversations with
major film studios regarding RipGuard over the past year, we have
consistently heard that studios are unlikely to pay for DVD protection that
can be circumvented by the casual DVD pirate. The key question that studios
will be asking themselves is: how far is the 'average joe' willing to go to
copy a movie." 


Munster, who maintains a "Market Perform" rating on the stock, did not
change his earnings expectations for the company. 


Analysts polled by Thomson Financial, on average, expect Macrovision to earn
28 cents per share on $60.46 million in revenue for the fourth quarter. 



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