Fox decodes Apple DRM for DVD downloadable copies

Embedded digital files playable on iPod, others

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 1/15/2008

JAN. 15 | 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment will be significantly expanding its slate of releases embedded with digital copies, after securing the ability to use Apple’s digital rights management technology.

The studio expects to street 40 titles with digital copies, spanning new releases and select catalog titles, through 2008. Up first are Family Guy Presents: Blue Harvest, which streeted today, and the upcoming action feature Hitman on March 11. The digital copies will be available on the two-disc special editions of these films and can be transferred within minutes for playback on PCs and a wide range of Apple products, including Macs, iPods, iPhones and Apple TV.

“The industry has sold nearly 12 billion DVDs to date, and the release of Blue Harvest is the first one that allows consumers to move their content to an iPod,” said Mike Dunn, Fox president worldwide. “Given Apple’s dominance in the portable entertainment market and our rapidly evolving digital world, a DVD with a digital copy for Apple offers a simple way for consumers to satisfy their growing desire to watch what they want, when they want and importantly, how and where they want.”

To use Fox’s digital copies with Apple products, a user inserts the disc with the embedded copy into a computer equipped with iTunes and enters a unique code into the software. Then, iTunes will copy the movie into the users’ iTunes library. Each DVD will only transfer the copy to one iTunes library. From the library, people can then transfer the copy to other iTunes-based hardware, including the iPod, iPhone and Apple TV.

Prior to licensing Apple’s DRM, Fox’s initial digital copy embedded into its Nov. 20 Live Free or Die Hard DVD, could play in most PCs and portable devices but not Apple hardware.

Tens of thousands of people have since transferred the Live Free digital copy off the DVD release, said Steve Feldstein, Fox senior VP of marketing communications. But Fox’s digital copies should strongly grow in popularity now that they can work on iPods, today’s most popular video portable devices. Counting all music and video models, iPod has sold 100 million units through April 2007.

“The portable video universe is the iPod universe,” said Feldstein. “That is a huge marketplace. We are giving movie lovers yet another option to how they can enjoy their entertainment. This is an added convenience for consumers, where within five minutes they can go from disc to iPod, and they are ready to roll.”