DVDs: get ready for production runs of one

Stuart Corner
Sunday, 13 August 2006 13:54

IT Industry - Strategy

Changes to the copy control regime for DVDs could result in large libraries of special interest movies and other content becoming available for consumers to burn onto their own DVDs.
The current copy protection regime for DVDs means that pre-recorded discs of movies etc are produced only where there are likely to be sufficient sales to make the exercise profitable, but the DVD Copy Control Assocation (DVD CCA) is proposing to change the rules so that consumers would be able to produce their own copy-protected DVDs from content downloaded over the Internet.

Initially this would likely be in special purpose public kiosks, but later it is expected to be possible in consumers' homes. Users would require special blank DVDs incorporating the current Content Scramble System (CSS) for encryption, but the resulting discs would be playable in a standard DVD player.

CSS is presently used on commercial pre-recorded DVDs with the aim of preventing them from being copied.

The DVD CCA - the a not-for-profit organisation responsible for licensing CSS to manufacturers of DVD hardware, discs and related products - says the custom disc creation facility would be permitted under new rules "now in the works".

The organisation's chairman, Chris Cookson, said the move was "the logical next step to answer industry and consumer demand for additional legal digital distribution alternatives."

According to the DVD CCA "An early application of this type of recording would likely be commercial kiosks, where consumers could buy entertainment, custom-burned on the special discs. This would allow consumers to obtain, for example, unusual, historical or special content that is now unavailable on DVD because existing demand does not warrant the mass reproduction today's market requires.'

All that's needed to make this possible, and legal, is an amendment to the Procedural Specifications for CSS. This has already been approved by DVD CCA's Content Protection Advisory Council and is now waiting on review by DVD CCA members followed by approval by the organisation's board. No indication of timeframe has been given.