Trade Law Daily is a service of Warren Communications News.

Disney continues to “watch and evaluate” UltraViolet, Lori...

Disney continues to “watch and evaluate” UltraViolet, Lori MacPherson, executive vice president-home entertainment, told us. Its position on the digital rights authentication and cloud-based licensing system “hasn’t changed” and the company has “made no plans to” support UltraViolet, she said.…

Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article

Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.

Disney remains the only major Hollywood studio that doesn’t support UltraViolet. The company has “three main criteria for making our content available on any format or ecosystem,” and they are that there must be “adequate content protection,” as well as a “sustainable business model,” and it must also provide a “great consumer experience,” said MacPherson. Disney opted to develop its own Keychest digital rights technology instead, but MacPherson provided no update on the company’s plans for that technology. Disney, meanwhile, has offered Digital Copy with its movies on optical disc for several years and introduced a Digital Copy Plus website in June, she said. The Plus enhancement “makes it much easier for consumers to redeem their Digital Copy and also gives them a wider selection of partners through which they can redeem, and that’s been really successful” for Disney, she said. Iron Man 3, released Tuesday on home video, is compatible with Digital Copy Plus and some catalog releases have also used it, including Peter Pan and Robin Hood, she said. Usage data weren’t provided by Disney. But Disney has “gotten a lot of anecdotal feedback that consumers find it much more intuitive and easier to use” than standard Digital Copy, she said.