If you’re planning to buy the new “Michael Jackson’s This Is It” movie, out today on DVD and Blu-ray, true fans may want to consider the movie on a USB drive.

It’s  not  high-definition, and it can only be played on a Windows PC. And the movie is all that is included on the 2 GB drive.

But each of the “This is It” USB drives from Fountain Valley’s Kingston Technology is numbered, up to 75,000.

Kingston, which has released three other movies on USB drives, said this one is the first that will let owners share the movie on up to 3 computers. Kingston’s previous movie USB releases, which included “Star Trek” and “Transformers,” required the USB drive to remain plugged into the computer.

“It really is new territory for us.  It’s a way for a memory company like us to work with a big movie company,” said David Leong, Kingston’s spokesman.

Leong said that the $19.99 drive targets devices like netbooks, which don’t have an optical drive. But beyond the PC, many users may not be able to watch the movie on their big screen TV or other USB-friendly player because the movie only works with Windows Media Player.

“It’s for Michael Jackson fans,” he said.

But another feature of the USB version of the movie is that it can be shared with 3 computers.

Kingston, which sells all sorts of computer and flash memory devices, has mixed memory and entertainment before. In 2008, it released a microSD card with Ricky Martin songs. The card did sell in the U.S. but it sold much better in South America where the singer is more popular. Music USBs never really caught on because of the ease of buying and downloading songs from iTunes and other sites.

But movies could be different because of the anti-copying Digital Rights Management, Leong said.

Each drive has a voucher code, which must be entered into a PC before the movie is played for the first time on a machine. Once the code is entered, the license is downloaded and the movie can play an unlimited number of times on that machine. But after three uses, there is no way to rest the voucher to add a fourth machine.

“With movies and DVDs, there’s always the sense that things can be pirated” so movie studios haven’t embraced the digital download as much, he said. ”…But with a USB drive, the way the DRM is set up especially with Michael Jackson, this movie can be stored on three different computers and you have a licensing key on each one. After three, you can’t make another backup copy.”

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