Managed copy due next year

DIGITAL: Blu-ray buyers get right to make a backup

By Jennifer Netherby -- Video Business, 6/11/2009

JUNE 11 | DIGITAL: Beginning next year, studios and other content holders will be required to give consumers the ability to make one copy of any Blu-ray Disc they buy.

Dubbed “managed copy,” the requirement has long been planned for the Blu-ray format, but has only just been finalized by the Advanced Access Content System License Administrator, a consortium of studios, hardware manufacturers and technology companies that licenses the AACS copy protection used on Blu-ray Discs.

The managed copy requirement was part of the final AACS licensing agreement approved June 5, first reported by Media Wonk blogger Paul Sweeting. Since launching the Blu-ray format in 2006, companies had been operating under an interim AACS licensing agreement.

The requirement that studios include managed copy on Blu-ray discs means that virtually all Blu-ray discs released after the first quarter of 2010 will offer consumers the ability to make one full-resolution backup copy, AACS-LA chair Michael Ayers said. Before the final license takes effect, studios, manufacturers and others who license Blu-ray must approve it.

Once it does take effect, it’s unlikely that most Blu-ray owners will be immediately able to make a copy—the current generation of Blu-ray players and other BD devices don’t have the ability to make managed copies, and hardware suppliers aren’t expected to get new players out until the first or second quarter of 2010 at the very earliest.

In addition, content owners will be in tight control of the backups made. Studios can choose to charge for the copy and can offer, or sell, additional copies.

Initially, managed copies can be made to recordable Blu-ray or DVD discs, as a download to a Windows Media DRM-compatible portable player or hard drive, on a memory stick, SD card or as a bound copy, such as a digital copy file on the disc, Ayers said.

Downloads to iPods, iPhones and other Apple devices are not approved, and the AACS-LA has not received a submission from Apple to make Blu-ray copies to Apple devices, though Ayers said Apple could apply at any time. The final AACS license allows for additional copying formats to be added.

The way managed copy is expected to work is that a consumer would insert their disc in a Blu-ray player and the disc’s menu would include an option to make a managed copy or the consumer might have to press some buttons on their Blu-ray device to make a copy, Ayers said. Once they choose the option to make a copy, the Blu-ray player connects online to an authorization server, run by a studio, supplier or the AACS-LA. The authorization server then gives the go-ahead to make a copy.

Studios have until Dec. 4 to sign the final AACS agreement. Once they sign, they are required to make all Blu-ray releases ready for managed copy, said Ayers. Studios won’t have to actually allow consumers to make copies of Blu-ray releases until the first quarter, when AACS-LA gets its authorization server set up. Ayers said studios and suppliers also can set up their own authorization servers.

For content owners, adding the managed copy feature only requires that they encode discs to include a URL directed to an authorization server. Discs are serialized, so that the authorization servers can tell whether a copy has already been made.

Although studios and other content holders will be required to include managed copy on Blu-ray discs by the first quarter of 2010, Blu-ray hardware manufacturers aren’t ever required to add managed copy.

Ayers said he expects hardware manufacturers will do so because it’s something consumers have indicated they want.

“We think that consumers really do want the ability to use their content flexibly,” he said.

Andy Parsons, U.S. chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Assn. Promotions Committee and senior VP of product planning at Pioneer Home Entertainment, agreed.

“There’s enough interest in the consumer community that there should be enough incentive in the hardware community to do this,” he said.

Hardware companies that add managed copy to devices also will have to add additional content protections, safeguarding copies from piracy.

A recent survey by National Consumers League (sponsored by RealNetworks, which not coincidentally is battling the major studios in court to sell software that lets consumers copy DVDs) found that 90% of consumers would like to make a backup copy of DVDs.

Parsons couldn’t say if Pioneer would add managed copy capabilities to its players.

He said he hasn’t heard of any hardware manufacturers including managed copy features in players on the market now or those that have been announced. It’s unlikely that the feature could be added to players already on the market.

“It doesn’t seem likely as a firmware upgrade because the specs weren’t done,” he said. “Hardware guys don’t like building stuff that might not be done.”

As an incentive to get content holders to sign the final AACS agreement early, the AACS-LA is offering to reduce fees by as much as 25% to those who sign before the deadline.