NEW YORK: The DVD Copy Control Association is now relaxing some of the restrictions it had enforced, which basically prevented any recording of downloadable movies onto DVDs.
The association said special blank DVDs would now allow this process. These discs would include the technology called the content scramble system (CSS), which is designed to prevent illegal copying. The proposed change in rules would make this technology more widely available to allow for movie download providers such as Movielink to enable burning capabilities.
The association's chairman Chris Cookson said the creation of new ways to legally create secure DVD content is the logical next step to answer industry and consumer demand for additional legal digital distribution alternatives.” Allowing the creation of high performance, protected DVDs in the business or at home that, until now, could only be mass-produced in factories is another major step forward."
The step will help service providers like Movielink and iTunes to take up burning of video content on DVDs. The association said the programs would be recorded on the hard discs of personal computers when they are downloaded via the internet or on special, network-enabled, DVD recorders.
The association has already approved the change in rules and it will be available on a mass scale once the process become compliant with other specifications.
Meanwhile, Hollywood studios appear to be approving the association's proposal.
According to one proposal, movie retailers and rental shops would be allowed to install kiosks where customers could order a movie and burn it to disc in the store.
Two online movie stores, Movielink and CinemaNow, have download-to-DVD services now, but they use encryption technologies that are not always compatible with standard DVD players.
