The companies in the DVD video business, including those from the motion picture, computer, and consumer electronics industries, agreed that the licensing of CSS technology should be controlled and administered by companies in the industries together and that the costs associated with such critical intellectual property protection should be borne by the hundreds of companies involved.

To this end, the DVD industry created the DVD Copy Control Association, Inc. in December of 1998 as a Delaware not-for-profit trade association.  The DVD CCA became the sole licensing entity which could grant licenses to the CSS technology in the video format.  As the authorized licensing entity, the DVD CCA also had the right to enforce the CSS Agreement.