Managed copy requirements delayed

DIGITAL: Players not yet ready to offer backups for Blu-ray discs

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

NOV. 6 | DIGITAL: Come December, studios and anyone else releasing movies on Blu-ray Disc will be required to offer consumers a backup copy of every Blu-ray disc they buy.

But, because no Blu-ray players in the market yet have the capability to make the backups, it’ll be meaningless for consumers in the immediate future. So, the group that administers the provision is delaying some requirements for studios until the second quarter of next year.

The long-planned managed copy requirement goes into effect Dec. 4, as part of the final licensing agreement for AACS, the copy protection used on Blu-ray discs. The final agreement was approved in June 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 BD. Up to now, studios and Blu-ray companies have been operating under an interim agreement.

Studios and other Blu-ray licensees must sign the final agreement to keep using Blu-ray. So far, 600 companies worldwide have done so, AACS-LA chair Michael Ayers said. Once content holders sign, they must make all discs ready for managed copy, essentially including a link on the disc directing the Blu-ray player to an authentication server.

The way managed copy is expected to work is that a consumer would insert their disc in a Blu-ray player or drive 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. 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. Discs are serialized, and the authentication server will determine if a copy is allowed.

However, until Blu-ray player manufacturers begin offering players with the ability to make full-resolution back-up copies, the managed copy addition on discs will be unnoticeable to consumers.

Manufacturers aren’t ever required to make players that offer managed copy, and so far, no manufacturer has announced plans to do so. However, backers say they expect some devices in the next year, with PC drives likely to be the first products to support managed copy.

In the meantime, that means Blu-ray discs will come out managed copy-ready without any player support.

That’s why the AACS-LA has pushed back the start date for some managed copy requirements from the first quarter to the second. Studios and content holders aren’t required to promote and label discs as managed copy-ready until March 31. That’s when the AACS-LA expects to have its authentication servers up and running, Ayers said.

Ayers said he hasn’t yet heard of any manufacturers announcing plans to include managed copy support, and AACS-LA is trying to make sure that studios aren’t required to promote managed copy before managed copy-capable devices are on the market.

Once devices are out, Blu-ray owners who have purchased discs made after Dec. 4 will already have managed copy-ready movies.

The hope, Ayers said, is once devices are in the market and studios start promoting it, consumers will have a “ready-made library of movies to take advantage of managed copy.”

Studios will be able to charge for those backups and offer more than one copy. They also may choose to offer managed copy rather than a digital copy, which is more expensive to add to a disc.

Managed copies can be burned 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, though AACS-LA can approve other methods going forward.

It is possible that Walt Disney Studio’s Keychest and whatever format the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem chooses as its standard could be approved as managed copy backups, Ayers said. Neither Disney nor the DECE has approached AACS-LA about that, though the group “would be interested in them taking part,” he said.