An amendment to the DVD Copy Control Association will allow for (legally) downloaded movies to be (legally) burned to DVDs. Previously this was not allowed and even the work-around hack could be difficult to pull off thanks to the strict DRM.

While this certainly seemed to be a major problem last year as not too many regular consumers seemed to relish the idea of watching a movie they downloaded on their computer instead of their home entertainment center – several new products such as Apple TV have allowed consumers to get their downloaded content in their living rooms. So while it may be nice to have this option – especially for backup purposes – it may be coming late to the party as hard drive bound content is starting to take off.

Will Apple use it for iTunes? Perhaps. It certainly helps that iTunes movie downloads are significantly smaller in size (and worse quality) than their DVD counterparts – meaning you would not need a dual-layer DVD burner for the iTunes downloads whereas you would for a straight full-quality DVD download.

Of course this could all be moot if special DVD-Rs that only work with special DVD recorders are required (as is rumored); that would be a pretty stupid move.

This could end up being a nice filler for Apple as the Apple TV product keeps expanding and evolving into that “4th leg” of the Apple Chair.