The Blu-ray format has gone through a very long development process since its official launch, not to mention an all-out war against HD-DVD, plus a whole lot of issues related to the price of the standalone players and the problem of piracy. However, it managed to prevail, at least for the time being, with some major improvements being announced for the future, including here the possibility of officially copying the contents of a Blu-ray disc.

So, as VideoBusiness informs us, the Advanced Access Content System License Administrator, a consortium of studios, hardware manufacturers and technology companies that licenses the AACS copy protection used on Blu-ray Discs, introduced in the AACS licensing agreement (which was approved on June 5) a requirement called “managed copy,” which should provide normal consumers with the ability to make just one copy of a Blu-ray disc they've purchased legally.

However, while this might seem like great news, the truth is quite different. First of all, to set things clear, we're not talking about a free copy. No, the studios have the right to enforce a fee for the copying process, and, knowing the guys over in Hollywood, they will surely do so. Plus, while the process itself should be rather straightforward (insert disc, access function directly from the menu, connect to studio's server to receive approval, copy the disc to anything from an SD card to a memory stick), there is one big issue here: there aren't any machines out there that can actually carry out this function.

Apparently, this requirement will come into play starting with the second quarter of 2010, but chances for it to boost Blu-ray sales or prove popular are minimal, exactly for the two reasons mentioned above. After all, there aren't that many people that will willingly pay an extra sum of money for a disc that's already theirs (although they might do so for a little profit), not to mention the fact that even fewer will be willing to replace their current BD machine with a newer one, whose only main extra feature is the possibility of copying Blu-ray movies.

Plus, there's the issue of the raising popularity of digital downloads, with many people preferring to go directly for digital copies of certain movies, downloadable via the Internet. But that's a whole different debate...


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