There's good news and bad news about Managed Copy for Blu-ray. The good news is that as of December 4, 2009, the ability to back up programming will be encoded into all disc releases. The bad news is that players taking advantage of the feature have yet to see the light of day.

Four years in the making, Managed Copy for BD was standardized over the summer by AACS-LA, guardian of DRM technology for various disc formats. December 4 is the date when all new disc releases must support it. But players will not follow until 2010, so for the time being, BD Managed Copy is all dressed up with nowhere to go. How it will affect disc pricing remains to be seen.

While electronic libertarians argue that consumers have the right to make backup copies, it is illegal under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to circumvent an anti-copying technology. Managed Copy offers a legal and studio-approved method to burn a disc, copy to a PC's or server's hard drive, or bump to a portable device.

Another form of Managed Copy has been available in DVD for some time. Fox is among the studios that have offered it.

See ArsTechnica and Engadget HD.