Analog Protection System

The Macrovision Analog Protection System (APS), also known as Copyguard by some people, is a videocassette and videodisc copy protection system originally developed by Macrovision Corporation. The system was developed to prevent bootlegging of original videocassettes and DVDs.

System History

The Analog Protection System was originally introduced in 1985 with the home video release of the 1984 film The Cotton Club by Embassy Home Entertainment. It was intended to replace the StopCopy protection system first introduced in 1978. By 1990, most of the major film distributors were using the APS system for their releases, with the main holdout coming from RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video.

List of Customers

• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (VHS: 1986-1998, 2004-2006; DVD: 1998-2020)
• AIX Media Group
• Ambrose Video Publishing (tapes released through the MacArthur Library)
• Artisan Entertainment (mainly on DVD releases and on a few blockbuster VHS releases in the 1990s)
• Bandai Entertainment
• Central Park Media
• Coronet/MTI Film and Video (tapes released through the MacArthur Library)
• Direct Cinema Limited
• DreamWorks Home Entertainment (1998-2003)
• FUNimation Entertainment
• Group Productions
• Home Vision Entertainment
  • Public Media Video
• Koch Lorber Films
• London Films (tapes released through the MacArthur Library)
• The Lyons Group (1988, 1992-1995)
• The MacArthur Library
• Media Home Entertainment (except for Anchor Bay Entertainment-era VHS releases)
• MGM Home Entertainment (1986-1993)
• Palm Pictures (2000)
• Paramount Home Media Distribution (1990-1993, 1998-2013)
  • Simon & Schuster Video (tapes released through the MacArthur Library)
• PBS Video (tapes released through the MacArthur Library)
• Pioneer Entertainment (mainly on DVD releases)
• PolyGram Video (1997-1999)
• Price Stern Sloan Video (1992)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (on some rare occasions on VHS: 1996-1999; DVD: 1997-2003)
  • Sony Wonder (on some 2006 releases)
• United Learning
• Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (1986-2007)
• Viz Video (mainly on DVD releases)
• Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (1986-2014, except a few rare occasions including: all LP-mode releases, some copies of the 1995 VHS of While You Were Sleeping that have no previews, and some mid-'80s short-form releases)
  • Disney Educational Productions
• Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (1986-1993)
  • HBO Home Entertainment
  • New Line Home Entertainment (on early DVD releases, as well as on the VHS of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze and on some pre-Time Warner Turner-era VHS releases)
    • Nelson Entertainment (experimental, only during the Embassy years)
• Zomba Video
  • Jive Records

List of Known Duplicators That Used Macrovision

• Allied Vaughn (formerly Allied Film & Video)
  • Vaughn Communications Inc.
• American Sound & Video
• Cine Magnetics
• Cinram
• Deluxe Video Services (formerly BHCP Video and Rank Video Services America)
• Denver Dubbing
• Digital Communications Technology Corporation (formerly Magnetech Corporation)
• Digital Excellence Inc.
• DXB Video Tapes, Inc.
• Full Perspective Video Services Inc.
• International Cassette Corp.
• MediaCopy, Inc. (formerly West Coast Video Duplicating)
  • Media Home Entertainment
• Opryland Duplicating Services
• Premiere Video
• Producers Color Service Inc.
• Scenewise Inc. (formerly Custom Duplication Inc. and Scope Seven)
• Sifford Media
• Technicolor Video Services
  • The CBS/Fox Company
• The Duplication Group (formerly Cassette Productions)
• The Video-Matic Group
• Video Technology Services
• Vision Wise
• WRS Motion Picture & Video Laboratory