Macrovision said today that it agreed to acquire self-protecting digital content technology assets from Cryptography Research Inc. Upon closing of the transaction, Macrovision will own the SPDC (Self-Protecting Digital Content) technology, which formed the basis of BD+, a key element of Blu-ray's content security platform.

The purchase includes certain Cryptography Research's patents, security software code, and related third party customer and partner agreements. Macrovision will also hire certain CRI employees involved in the technology.

The consideration for the SPDC assets is $45 million in cash plus warrants exercisable for Macrovision stock. Macrovision expects the transition to close in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Used exclusively by Blu-Ray, BD+ responds dynamically to security threats. Similar to Macrovision’s ACP technology, BD+ resides both in devices and on the media. Title-specific security code is embedded in each BD+ protected disc. On the device side, BD+ utilizes an embedded virtual machine and APIs that are integrated directly into the media player, which communicate with the code from the discs. As a result, new titles can carry unique security code to address emerging threats, thus providing content producers the ability to respond to security breaches without impacting legitimate consumers.