For those of you that like to watch your media digitally (guilty), good news comes today in the form of a press release from Apple:

Apple(R) today announced that new movie releases from major film studios and premier independent studios are available for purchase on the iTunes(R) Store (http://www.itunes.com) on the same day as their DVD release. New releases and catalog titles will be available from 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Lionsgate, Image Entertainment and First Look Studios. Movies purchased from iTunes can be viewed on an iPod(R) with video, iPhone(TM), Mac(R) or PC or on a widescreen TV with Apple TV(R), with new releases priced at $14.99 and most catalog titles at $9.99.

New releases available for purchase on the iTunes Store this week, concurrent with their DVD release, include “American Gangster” and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” Other popular titles now available for purchase include “Juno,” “Cloverfield,” “I Am Legend,” “There Will Be Blood,” “Alvin and the Chipmunks” and “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.”

This is a big step forward for Apple whose digital rental service was cool, but ultimately just for those who were really lazy and didn’t mind burning a few bucks to watch a movie in 24 hours.

Now we can be lazy and actually OWN the movies that we want. Pair this up with some Toast, fancy anti-DRM coding and a DVD burner and we’re in business! Literally!