Disney Takes Digital Copy to the Web

3 Jun, 2013 By: Thomas K. Arnold

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Walt Disney Studios is joining other studios in making it easier for consumers to access a movie digitally that they buy on Blu-ray Disc or DVD by doing away with the cumbersome "digital copy" process and launching a new website that streamlines the film's digital delivery.

The debut of the Disney Digital Copy Plus website has been set for June 11, the same day the studio’s Oz the Great and Powerful is released on disc.

Instead of accessing the digital copy from a disc in the “superset” combo pack, a digital copy of the film can now be accessed directly from the website by consumers who purchase any disc configuration of the film. The website, then, facilitates the digital delivery of the movie through the consumer’s provider of choice — in this case, either iTunes, Amazon Instant video or Vudu — and eliminates the need for a digital copy to be included in the disc package.

A Disney spokesperson said the move is designed to make it easier to access the film digitally — and at the same time continue the effort to make consumers more comfortable with the idea of accessing movies digitally.

The spokesperson said Digital Copy Plus was built on the premise of “Responsive Design,” so the site works across all browsers, both on a computer and on mobile devices.

“This allows for the capability to redeem the digital version of your movie on any connected device. You no longer have to wait until you get home to insert a disc into your computer,” the spokesperson said.

The other big studios are behind “UltraViolet,” a digital rights management system that lets consumers buy a disc once and then access the content, through the cloud, at any time, on any device. Warner and Sony Pictures offer only UV access with their discs, while Fox, Universal, Paramount and Lionsgate offer both UV access and a traditionally downloaded digital copy. Among the latter, Fox is the only studio that still includes a disc for the digital copy — embedding access on the DVD version of the movie. The UV code from Universal, Paramount and Lionsgate often can also be used to download a copy directly from iTunes.

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