Macworld: Digital Copy Expands to iTunes

Apple today introduced a major expansion of its Digital Copy program, first unveiled with the November 2007 release of Twentieth Century Fox's "Live Free, Die Hard" DVD.

The Special Edition of that title included an interface to make one free copy of the movie for your PC, and one free copy of the movie for a Windows PlaysForSure device.

At the Macworld 2008 keynote today, Jim Gianopulos, chairman and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment, announced that Fox and Apple now would be offering Digital Copy for iTunes.

According to Fox, Digital Copy for iTunes builds on the basic infrastructure established with "Live Free or Die Hard," but will work with iTunes directly.

Here's an example: Insert the disc into your computer, enter a code that comes with the disc into iTunes, and iTunes automatically copies the movie to iTunes in a matter of minutes. From there, you can watch the movie on your PC or Mac via iTunes, or transfer the copy to an iPod, iPhone, or Apple TV. The gotcha: Each DVD will only transfer its iTunes Digital Copy to one iTunes library.

The first title with this capability is the Special Edition DVD of "Family Guy Presents: Blue Harvest" , a Star Wars parody available in stores today. Fox says the second release with iTunes support will be "Hitman," which is due out on March 11.

Late last year, Fox was the first studio to get a movie to market that had Digital Copy capability. But Fox isn't the only digital pioneer: Warner Brothers was right behind them with the release of "Harry Potter: The Order of the Phoenix" in December 2007.

I won't be a bit surprised to hear news of other studios following suit with iTunes Digital Copying, as well.

For full coverage of Macworld Expo 2008, go to the PCW Mac Info Center.

Comments

Post a comment Post a comment

0 / 1000 max characters