When he debuted his company’s new DVD copier at DEMOfall recently, called RealDVD, RealNetworks’ Rob Glaser did a video interview with BoomTown about it.

And now that RealNetworks (RNWK) and Hollywood are cross-suing each other over RealDVD–in the latest clash over the still-contentious copyright issue that separates the tech and entertainment industries–it’s time for a replay!

The RealDVD software allows a user to rip all the parts of a DVD, including cover art, onto a computer. It costs about $30.

Hollywood studios, which filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday, maintain that RealDVD is illegal, and one of their reps called it “StealDVD.”

Haw, haw. This is what apparently passes for clever in Hollywood these days.

But before the entertainment giants’ lawsuit, RealNetworks filed its own suit, claiming it was protecting the fair-use rights of consumers to make copies of content they had purchased.

To avoid violating digital rights management schemes, RealDVD has added its own DRM layer, preventing ripped DVDs from being copied and shared and imposing further barriers to piracy.

But there are still possibilities for illegal ripping, of course, because RealDVD users must promise not to copy videos they don’t own.

No surprise–an honor-system product that makes it even easier to copy DVDs was not exactly welcome by Hollywood, which has been trying to protect its movie revenues from suffering the same fate as the music industry via rampant CD-ripping.

Thus, the typical mainstream media reaction to the inevitability of consumers wanting to digitize content: More lawsuits!

In any case, here’s the video of Glaser talking about RealDVD:

At DEMOfall yesterday, RealNetworks’ Rob Glaser chitty-chatted with BoomTown about a lot of things, such as the Presidential race (he is a big Obama supporter), his twins and more.

But in this video interview, Glaser talked about RealDVD, the company’s new “legal” DVD copier, which was launched here in San Diego yesterday.

At an introductory rate of $30, buyers can use the software to rip all the parts of a DVD, including cover art.

To avoid violating digital rights management schemes, RealDVD adds its own DRM layer, preventing ripped DVDs from being copied and shared and imposing further barriers to piracy.

But there are still possibilities for illegal ripping, of course, because RealDVD users must promise not to copy videos they don’t own.

Thus, an honor-system product that makes it even easier to copy DVDs might not be so welcomed by Hollywood, which has been trying to protect its movie revenues from suffering the same fate as the music industry via rampant CD-ripping.

Here’s the video of Glaser talking about RealDVD:

Over the last two days, BoomTown has been enjoying the perfect Pacific Northwest summer weather, visiting several Seattle-based Internet companies and also Microsoft HQ in nearby Redmond.

Seattle is still essentially Silicon Valley North, except a lot more laid back and with much less of an egregiously opportunistic, what’s-the-next- hot-start-up tone one feels any day of the week in Palo Alto.

I used to come to Washington state a lot about a decade ago, while covering Microsoft’s MSN, RealNetworks (RNWK) and Amazon (AMZN)–which continue to be the major trio of digital bigwigs here–as the Internet beat reporter at The Wall Street Journal.

I plan on coming back a lot more over the next year, focusing more closely on Microsoft’s (MSFT) still uncertain Web efforts and also on a wide range of other companies here.

So far, it seems to be off to a good start.

While here I had a blabby dinner with RealNetworks’ Rob Glaser, where we talked about online games and music and Sen. Barack Obama (Glaser is a big supporter).

I also went to see Delve Networks (or, as I like to call it–Not-Brightcove), social networking facilitator WetPaint and the music social networking service iLike (which I really like).

Also on the agenda was a day-long visit to Microsoft, to get updated on some thankfully non-Yahoo products and services and what the company’s research and Live Labs units are working on.

Of course, there was Yahoo talk too, but–even up here–it’s hard to avoid.

All this and more will be part of postings and videos next week in this column on what the geeks in this coffee-inundated city are up to.

Now in its fifth year, it was called “Making a List: The Fifth Annual What’s Hot and What’s Not in Personal Technology” and took place in Palo Alto, Calif. Our guest were Marissa Mayer of Google and tech consultant Greg Harper.

Walt and I typically show off several devices we think are interesting and try to identify some important trends.

Here’s a video of Walt, Greg and Marissa at the event:

(I still am having problems with the Brightcove player, so I uploaded the video to YouTube.)

For example, Walt showed the new Amazon Kindle electronic book reader (which he did not actually like so much in his review of the device this week), as well as the new version of Sony’s e-book offering. He also showed some new cellphones that are trying to mimic the Apple iPhone. His take: Great software in consumer electronics is key this year.

I showed new robotic devices from iRobot–the new version of its popular Roomba vacuum and its new wireless gutter cleaner called the Looj. We had an actual gutter on stage, full of leaves I made my much-abused assistant Ed Daly collect from a gardener’s truck we found on a suburban street.

And every year, we’ve brought in uber-gadget geek and tech consultant Harper, who always brings in a truckload of cutting edge and sometimes freaky stuff. That included an egg-shaped speaker that dances from, of course, Japan, as well as a solar battery charger, a $400 laptop and a vanity mirror that is a Webcam in disguise. Harper posited that all devices would have to be always connected going forward.

And, also annually, we invite a celebrity geek from well-known tech companies. In the past, we’ve had Google’s Larry Page, Jerry Yang of Yahoo, RealNetworks’ Rob Glaser and Chad Hurley of YouTube–geeky guys all. But Mayer, one of Google’s top execs, proved the nerdiest with a wide range of cool stuff.

She showed off a keyboard whose keys had embedded LCD screens, a wireless rabbit, an alarm clock that can jump off your nightstand and a T-shirt with a wireless signal locator in it. She also did a demo of exactly what the new Google Android operating system for cellphones looks like. Take careful notes: It looks an awful lot like the iPhone.

Talking about a range of Web issues, the interviewees include pundit and investor Esther Dyson, Real Networks’ Rob Glaser, Simon Assaad of Heavy, BSkyB’s James Murdoch and the ubiquitous Quincy Smith of CBS:

OK, I am definitely not Princess Grace-worthy (well, who is? But here’s a picture of her, because it just makes life more pleasant).

But I am headed right now to her glam neck of the woods for the Monaco Media Forum, which is set to take place from tomorrow through Saturday in Monte-Carlo.

Hosted by HSH Prince Albert II, its subhead this year is “Leadership for the Digital Revolution,” and the group gathered is pretty heady and packed with American Webheads, as well as from around the globe. It has all been wrangled by Wired’s Spencer Reiss.

Speakers include Google’s ad guy Tim Armstrong, RealNetworks’ CEO Rob Glaser, CBS interactive guru Quincy Smith, pundit Esther Dyson, Babelgum Chairman Silvio Scaglia, MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe, NetVibes CEO Tariq Krim and News Corp.’s British Sky Broadcasting CEO James Murdoch (whose father is BoomTown’s new bossman).

I will be doing a one-on-one interview Friday morning with InterActiveCorp CEO Barry Diller with the title “Reality Check.”

Videos to come, of course, as BoomTown gets some European class.

Using the software, you can download online videos from Web sites with one click, organize them and burn them to DVD and CD. Copyright issues are interesting here, of course, but Glaser said protected material would not be able to be sucked up by the technology. We’ll see.

By way of background, D: All Things Digital, the annual tech and media conference Walt Mossberg and I host, has been sold out with a long wait list every year we have put it on.

That has meant only a few hundred people can see the interviews and also demos we do live onstage with some of the tech and media industry’s most interesting and important players and products.

The lineups have included Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs, as well as Eric Schmidt of Google, IAC’s Barry Diller, Meg Whitman of eBay, Cisco’s John Chambers and many others.

And we’ve demoed stuff like the Treo when it first came out, as well as digital toilets, Wi-Fi phones and much more.

We usually post the photos and videos of the interviews and demos six or more months after they take place on a separate conference site. This year, our Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski live-blogged, and we also posted video highlights from all of the sessions immediately on our newly launched site here.

Now, we are posting videos of every session of the 2007 conference here, in full, and we have made all our photo galleries, hosted by SmugMug and mostly shot by our fabulous Asa Mathat, public too. You can also access our videos via the site’s master player here.

Every day, I am going to highlight a different interview or demo from the conference.

Here’s the RealPlayer 11:

Hey, we live in “sunny” San Francisco, as Ryan (the name of Orange Google Guy) says in the video, so we don’t judge.

So, Abayomi-Paul can now immortalize Orange Google Guy using RealNetworks’s beta software of its RealPlayer 11, which allows users one-click downloading of non-DRM-protected video from the Web. It is being offered to selected AllThingsD.com visitors to try out before it is released later this month.

CEO Rob Glaser debuted the new version of RealNetworks’s flagship product at the D5 conference last month, which you can read about here and also see a video of the demo.

Along with downloading, you can also bookmark videos and organize them using the software. And once saved, you can then rip those videos onto any CD, DVD or, eventually, any other storage device like an iPod.

Abayomi-Paul is in the early stages of a Web video channel for small businesses and thinks the RealPlayer would give her something neat to demo.

“I want to make some Google how-to videos downloadable for my small-business audience at www.freetraffictip.com–with permission only!,” she wrote. “The collection would be free, but then lots of the time-crunched ones could watch offline.”

Adding that she is home sick in bed, she noted that, “the computer is my only love! I’m a geek, a currently bedridden geek. Please help me not to die of boredom!”

Glad to help.

Check it out:

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

Gallantly, he sent us another one, embedded below, which is called “How To Crank Dat Soulja Boy,” a hip dance video that we can certainly handle in Silicon Valley.

And Cetoute can now download as he pleases, using RealNetworks’s beta software of its RealPlayer 11, which allows users one-click downloading of non-DRM-protected video from the Web. It is being offered to selected AllThingsD.com visitors to try out before it is released later this month.

CEO Rob Glaser debuted the new version of RealNetworks’s flagship product at the D5 conference last month, which you can read about here and also see a video of the demo.

Along with downloading, you can also bookmark videos and organize them using the software. And once saved, you can then rip those videos onto any CD, DVD or, eventually, any other storage device like an iPod.

Said Cetoute in his email about why he wanted the player: “I am not one of those tech freaks that will download CNET videos cuz that’s dumb and a waste [of] time. I want videos from YouTube/Google video. And I promise to use the account well, and not get it just to be in on all the latest tech. (Loser) lol.”

He is in luck, as RealNetworks is offering the beta software of its RealPlayer 11, which allows users one-click downloading of non-DRM-protected video from the Web, to AllThingsD.com visitors to try out before it is released later this month.

CEO Rob Glaser debuted the new version of RealNetworks’ flagship product at the D5 conference last week, which you can read about here and also see a video of the demo.

Along with downloading, you can also bookmark videos and organize them using the software. And once saved, you can then rip those videos onto any CD, DVD or, eventually, any other storage device like an iPod.

Most of Rajagopal’s selections were musical, many of street buskers and musicians, which were uniformly delightful. I selected three to show here. The first is of the Swingle Singers doing their unusual version of the “Mission Impossible” theme song; the second is of another group using Nintendo as an inspiration; and the third is a face-off of the music from “Star Trek” and “The Simpsons.”

Writes Rajagopal: “My views are pointed and fierce (some call them prejudiced). If this is indeed a beta version, I am sure I can send my point across and it would be meaningful.”

He adds: “My PC has 26 instances of beta software.”

Now, 27.

RealNetworks is offering the beta software of its RealPlayer 11, which allows users one-click downloading of non-DRM-protected video from the Web, to AllThingsD.com visitors to try out before it is released later this month.

CEO Rob Glaser debuted the new version of RealNetworks’s flagship product at the D5 conference last week, which you can read about here and also see a video of the demo.

Along with downloading, you can also bookmark videos and organize them using the software. And once saved, you can then rip those videos onto any CD, DVD or, eventually, any other storage device like an iPod.

“It’s 10 minutes long (the last two are priceless, especially for Ringo),” writes Fishman of the Web video he would like to download.

Indeed, the video comes from a concert the Fab Four did on Feb. 11, 1964, when they played at the Coliseum in Washington, D.C., which you can read about here.

Although you can see only 10 minutes of the whole concert, for the record, the Beatles played “All My Lovin’,” “Twist and Shout,” “She Loves You,” “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” “Roll Over Beethoven” and “Long Tall Sally,” among others.

Check it out:

Correction: An earlier version of this post misidentified the locale and date of the Beatles concert shown in the attached video. As reader Fred Bals (see comment below) points out, the concert took place at the Coliseum in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 11, 1964 (not at the Seattle Coliseum, where the Beatles performed Aug. 21, 1964).

Glaser debuted the new version of his flagship product at the conference last week, which you can read about here. It only allows you to download and save non-DRM-protected material, but there is plenty of that out there. The download feature, which pops up automatically while hovering over available videos, also keeps ads embedded in content that has them.

You can also bookmark videos and organize them. And once saved, you can then rip those videos onto any CD, DVD or, eventually, any other storage device like an iPod.

I was pretty impressed with its ease of use and usefulness.

No one can get these accounts until later in June, as this is an early version (meaning it will likely have some glitches, which RealNetworks would welcome feedback about). And they only work on Windows machines, though a Mac version is promised soon.

So if you want to be a guinea pig, write me an engaging and informative email about why you want the RealPlayer11 and how you will use it. Keep it short and sweet, please, and send it to kara@allthingsd.com.

But to make it even more interesting, you need to send me a link to a great video you want to download and if I like it, you get the account. I will also post all the video I receive, if it can be embedded, in this column.

Some rules:

No copyrighted material that has been somehow “unprotected” and slapped onto YouTube–I know, I know, information needs to be free, but some of it costs people money to make and I am not stealing it.

Keep it clean–I don’t judge, but I won’t post porn material here and so sending me such links, while amusing, is pointless.

A plus: I love funny. I love music. I love a good mash-up.

A minus: I am not a fan of kittens falling into pools, kids and their tricycle mishaps and stoners smashing into walls while riding skateboards.

Don’t butter me up and send me clips from the D conference–I was there.

Best bet: Surprise me and the account will be yours!

And see the video of Glaser’s demo last week below (and you can also read his recent post in our Voices section here):