Updated below: Always trust Rob Glaser to stir the pot, even if in the end Steve Jobs ends up taking the credit for everything. RealNetworks (NSDQ: RNWK) has filed a pre-emptive lawsuit against major studios, in an attempt to ward off any attempts to stop the launch of its DVD ripping software RealDVD, which launched in open today after a closed beta. In a statement, the company said that it is asking for “declaratory judgment against DVD Copy Control Association, Inc., Disney (NYSE: DIS) Enterprises, Inc., Paramount Pictures Corp., Sony (NYSE: SNE) Pictures Entertainment, Inc., Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., NBC Universal (NYSE: GE), Inc., Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., and Viacom (NYSE: VIA), Inc., in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.  The lawsuit asks the court to rule that RealNetworks Home Entertainment, Inc.’s RealDVD software, made available to consumers today at http://www.realdvd.com, fully complies with the DVD Copy Control Association’s license agreement.

SEE ALSO: RealNetworks Launching DVD Ripping Service; Will It Make Any Ripples?

The software allows Windows users to easily make a digital copy of an entire DVD, along with all the extras on it, with the idea to allow users to make backup copies for their personal use on laptops. Real has been saying that this is licensed DVD software that saves a secure copy of the DVD to user’s hard drive, with the CSS encryption intact, which means normal piracy/sharing of this video will not be easy. Users will be able to view the ripped DVD on one computer and four others, as long as they download and pay for the software (less money: $20 for those four licenses) on those five others and have the same login. It does not work on Blu-Ray or HD DVD. All of this, Real maintains, should have been enough to placate the studios, and says, rather cleverly, that it “took this legal action to protect consumers’ ability to exercise their fair-use rights for their purchased DVD.” It cites another case, DVD Copy Control Association, Inc. v. Kaleidescape, Inc., which was filed in the Santa Clara Superior Court (online here), which DVD CCA lost in March 2007 trial court. The Kaleidescape case is still on appeal.

RealNetworks’ lawsuit embedded below:

“Having lost the case once, the major studios are now trying to get a different result by going to a different court,” the company said. The studios haven’t yet, but likely they will file a counter suit. This isn’t the first time Real has lobbed such a lawsuit or product…anyone remember Harmony, or more recently its new version of RealPlayer 11?

Updated: The Motion Picture Association of America has filed a counter lawsuit…more details here.

More details in release.