LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - For the second time in as many weeks, a provider of software that allows people to make copies of DVDs has lost a court battle and been barred by a federal judge from selling its product.

The federal judge's ruling handed Hollywood's major movie studios another victory in their battle to stem the illegal copying of movies and TV shows on DVD, and in a statement, studio lawyers said they would look at whether a new version of 321's software now on the market also violates copyright law.

In a ruling issued late on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Richard Owen in New York's southern district ruled against arguments by privately held 321 Studios that its DVDXCOPY had alternative uses that did not violate copyright law.

"Prohibition of manufacture or trafficking of any technology primarily designed to circumvent a technological measure that either controls access to, or protects a right of a copyright owner ... obviously is not evaded by the existence of arguably limited alternative uses," Judge Owen wrote in his opinion.

Paramount Pictures Corp, a unit of Viacom Inc, and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp, a division of News Corp Ltd's Fox Entertainment Group Inc., had sued 321.

321, which is based in a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, said in a statement it would appeal and added that the new version of its software now being sold complies with the law.

The New York ruling was similar to an order issued in late February by a federal judge in San Francisco. 321 had sought a stay to that order by District Court Judge Susan Illston, but did not receive one by last Friday's deadline.

In answer to Judge Illston's ruling, 321 pulled DVDXCOPY from retail shelves and began selling a version that did not have the "ripper" software which allows DVDs to be copied.

321's new product does allow people to perform certain functions necessary to copy DVDs, and 321 founder Robert Moore has been vocal in saying anyone can download "ripper" software from the Web to use in conjunction with 321's products.

A spokesman for studio representative, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), said the studios were looking into whether this new version also violates copyright law.

"The law simply doesn't allow one to do indirectly what can't be done directly," MPAA attorney David Kendall said.

Meanwhile, 321 has launched a "Five Days of Protest" campaign encouraging people to speak against the rulings in a variety of ways including contacting Congress and the media.

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