A "managed copy" capability is provided that is both sanctioned and supervised by a service provider so that multimedia content distributed on optical media such as DVD can be copied and used by a client in a controlled manner. In an illustrative example, a content provider generates a fingerprint using heuristics and/or other data that uniquely identifies a multimedia release, like a feature film, as being authorized for copying according to defined usage rules. A managed copy service authorizes the client to make a copy of a source DVD if that source is found to match a stored fingerprint. An identification response, which may include encoding parameters and usage rules, provides confirmation to the client that content on the source DVD is authorized to be copied. The client copies content from the source to another medium in compliance with the identification response.