A couple of months ago 321 Studios was told to stop producing/distributing its DVD copying software. This decision came from U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston after siding with the movie studios. Now some of those same movie studios are working on technology that would allow "users to make authorized copies and share content, including high-definition video, with home-networked devices, including PCs, and portable devices". This new technology is called AACS, and is expected to be released later this year.
A group of eight companies, including Warner Bros. Studios and Walt Disney, are announcing plans to make available a content-management technology. The technology, called Advanced Access Content System or AACS, would allow consumers to copy prerecorded digital content, such as videos, and share it with networked and portable devices.
The AACS technology is being developed by the AACS LA to manage content stored on future generations of prerecorded and recordable optical media, the group says in a statement. The technology will allow users to make authorized copies and share content, including high-definition video, with home-networked devices, including PCs, and portable devices, it says. The first products based on AACS will be available later this year, the statement says.