Now here’s a nifty little side effect of iTunes in the Cloud gaining the power to re-download your iTunes movie purchases: Digital copies included with many DVD releases are also appearing on the Apple TV and iOS devices as well.
AppleInsider is reporting that iTunes in the Cloud didn’t just gain the ability to re-download your iTunes movie purchases on Wednesday -- it’s also capable of calling up those DVD Digital Copy authorizations, allowing such titles to be downloaded again from iCloud on an Apple TV, iOS device or even iTunes itself.
“Following the release of updated software for the Apple TV earlier this week, Gabe Gagliano of Tech of the Hub discovered that some of his iTunes Digital Copy files automatically appeared in the Purchased section of his Apple TV and were available for streaming via iCloud,” the report reveals. “The media also appeared under the Purchased tab of the iTunes app on an iPhone.”
Unfortunately, a contractual obligation with HBO is preventing Twentieth Century Fox and Universal from offering streaming or re-downloading via iTunes, so you won’t see movies from those studios showing up quite yet. We checked the Purchased tab of the iTunes app on our iPhone 4S and sure enough, two Digital Copy titles from Disney -- Monsters, Inc. and Toy Story 3 -- showed up as available for download.
Digital Copy is something of a precursor to the Ultraviolet technology that Hollywood is now pushing for. Many DVDs include an extra disc for a Mac or PC along with a code that’s entered into iTunes so the digital version can be imported there, a convenience that also no doubt also discourages users from attempting to rip their own copy from the disc.
If you’ve got some DVD or Blu-ray releases lying around with Digital Copy codes you haven’t redeemed, now would be a great time to do it -- no more gobbling up disk space, since many of them can be re-downloaded from iTunes in the Cloud again in the future.
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