[1] 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.

[2] 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.

[1] 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,[1] 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.[3] The court rejected this argument because 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.

[1] 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 was "primarily, if not exclusively, designed to circumvent the access control and copy protection measures that RealNetworks affords to copyright owners."

[4] The ruling was cited as a precedent in several later high-profile cases on Internet-enabled sharing of copyrighted entertainment files,[5] though some commentators have found that the specific technological issues of the case have been applied awkwardly to later file-sharing technologies, confusing the differences between downloading and streaming.