Movie studios are trying to get Amazon Instant Video on to the new UltraViolet cross-platform movie rights system, insiders divulged Wednesday. At least Sony and Warner Bros. were said by Bloomberg sources to be negotiating a deal. In ideal circumstances, a viewer could buy a Blu-ray or a digital format movie and have rights to play it on the Kindle Fire or another Amazon-friendly device.
The goal might be to use Amazon as leverage, according to the tips. While a number of online services and most studios are onboard, Apple and Disney have held out. Both have their own self-developed copy protection formats and have resisted what they see as ceding control. Apple is unlikely to ever bend, since it has taken an all-or-nothing stance where it would rather go without any rights system to give more flexibility than support a universal, but potentially slow-to-adapt, protection system.
Neither Amazon nor studios have commented on the rumor.
