Advanced Access Content System License Authority’s final agreements include a mandatory management-copy provision, under which most Blu-ray discs must permit copies to be made, albeit under carefully controlled conditions.
Posted on the AACS website on 4 June, the final agreement, five years in the making, spells out the conditions under which Blu-ray discs can be copied onto a variety of carriers.

With managed copy, all Blu-ray discs released during or after the first quarter of 2010 must allow users to make one copy in full resolution, but content owners decide the cost and may allow users to make additional copies.

The license agreement allows managed copies to be made to DVD or BD recordables, on a memory stick, SD card or as a bound copy, such as a digital copy file on the disc. These backups/downloads can be transferred a Windows Media DRM-compatible portable player or hard drive. Because Apple is not a AACS signatory, BD content cannot be transferred to iPods or iPhones via the iTunes Store.

The agreements also require that AACS-compliant hardware devices be capable of detecting digital watermarks inserted into movies and other video content to block playback of pirated content (a big win, incidentally, for Verance, whose Cinavia watermark is the specified standard in the agreement).

Managed copy authorization can only be made online. When a Blu-ray disc is inserted in a BD player, the menu would include an option to make a managed copy. The player connects online to an authorisation server, run by a studio, distributor or possibly the AACS-LA. The authorization server then gives the go-ahead to make a copy. Therefore, consumers will need new Blu-ray hardware to use the managed copy facility which are tentatively scheduled for the middle of next year.

Studios have until 4 December to sign the final AACS agreement.

Story filed 15.06.09