Walt Disney Company will soon release technology that helps entertainment firms alter their business models to a new model – where consumers rely on computers and cell phones instead of DVD players and TVs.

Keychest, as it called, is meant to redefine ownership as access rights, not physically possessing a copy.

It would allow consumers to pay a single price for permanent access to a movie or TV show across multiple digital platforms and devices — from the Web, to mobile gadgets like iPhones and cable services. It will make movie viewing possible anywhere once you buy the access rights.

Keychest aims to address two of the biggest hurdles blocking widespread consumer adoption of movie downloads: the difficulty of playing a movie back on devices other than a PC or laptop, and limited storage space on those computers’ hard drives.
It would on the other hand, put Disney on a collision course with an initiative, known as the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem, or DECE, that aims similar.

Keychest uses the same “cloud computing” logic that underlies Web-based applications, such as Google Docs, permitting users to store files and photographs on remote Internet servers and access them from anywhere, rather than keeping them on their own computers.
The release comes during a downslide slip of Hollywood’s DVD sales badly.

Via: WSJ