DVD Region Encoding on Verge of Collapse? 597
Spudley writes "It seems like the infamous Region Encoding system used by DVD manufacturers to prevent us buying disks from overseas is about to collapse - due to widespread flaunting of the system. This article on the BBC doesn't go into much technical detail, but does include an interview with a company that manufactures DVD players ("You can find codes for more or less all brands of DVD player including ours") and some speculation on the future." It always seemed like an idea destined to fail.
why? (Score:2, Insightful)
Speak with your money, not with your mouth (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course, if you wait then the prices might go down, so you might be burning money.
It was a bad idea to begin with... (Score:4, Insightful)
Flaunting vs. flouting? (Score:0, Insightful)
Um, no, it works just fine (Score:5, Insightful)
It always seemed like an idea destined to fail
No, i think it did its job spledidly. It prevented the general populace from spreading movies where they don't want, and it still does. How many people do you think buy a Gateway Computer, with DVD, tech support, ect., and don't know jack about Regional encoding. Trust me, they've done what they wanted to do, and it will still work, to a surprising degree, well into the future.
Just think how many people still can't program the time on a VCR. Do you seriously think they're going to find a go-around to Regional encoding when they're barely competent enough to wipe their own arse?
Doomed to begin with (Score:1, Insightful)
Not that it was destined to succeed at any point, anyway. Not a single government has stepped in to curtail the "unauthorized" imports of legally manufactured and purchased foreign discs into their country. (No, not the UK either - that had to do with ratings board certification, not region coding).
Re:why? (Score:2, Insightful)
Movies often open in the US 6-9 months before they show in Europe.
But this begs the question: What's the business justification for releasing a movie in Europe 6-9 months after it's released in the U.S.?
Simple solution (Score:5, Insightful)
this will probably be modded as offtopic--which only makes my sig more ironic than usual...
---rhad
They still don't get it (Score:4, Insightful)
I go to movies in the theater not because its the only place to see a film. I can wait for most films to be released on DVD before I truge off to the theater to stand in line and pay too much for popcorn. No I go to the theater to got the theater...to see Spiderman on a 36 YARD diagonal screen. Film is much more engrosing not having a pause button.
This is also obvious when you see how rare the MPAA rereleases great films. How many out there who own 2001 on DVD would pay to see it on the big screen. I'm sure we could come up with a list of hundreds of films they could put back out and have people flock to see them (think about how much better the summer would be if you knew there were going to be some good films that you could look forward to in addition to the list of ones you hope will be good like MIBII).
I think overall the real problem with the MPAA and the RIAA for that matter is they are in it for the money...not for the art. Yes the money may currently be in getting the 13-21 year olds into the seats, but if they tried to focus on the art rather than the product they might just be able to get the rest of us in there a little more often (and we'd still buy the DVD).
Why are the hacking codes there? (Score:3, Insightful)
Sure, DVD players are an international product and the region is selected after manufacturing a player.
But those in the business who actually wanted the region protection to succeed could have easily forced the manufacturers to make region-hacks more difficult. Manufacturers could have been forced to actually lock the region-code some way or the other.
E.g. the Pioneer 444 requires changing its firmware and it doesn't use firmware-upgrades through CDs as many of the Asian DVD players do, so making it region-free requires a lot more effort and cost. It's been hacked, as well, but it's pricy.
So all in all, it seems almost as if the DVD player manufacturers did not want the movie industry's plan to succeed...
Am I missing something? (Score:1, Insightful)
Since when have the media cartels ever actually learned their lessons? I find it much more likely that they will simply be more restrictive with their security.
The questionable legality of regional coding (Score:3, Insightful)
Why can't this be the same in the case of DVDs across the world? Because Hollywood thinks it has the right to delay release of films in different countries, to the extent that some UK-produced films are released in the US first.
It's time to stop the media attempts at controlling the world, and start thinking around the problem - many people order DVDs direct from the US, but there aren't many companies that specialise in importing such DVDs and selling region-free players.
Use your powers for good instead of evil (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not just release scheduling (Score:4, Insightful)
And now they're starting to realise that if you only have one product to sell, then you only have one market. I love it: This was such a grass-roots effort that it wasn't organized at all- just people everywhere voting with their wallets.
Meanwhile, back at the Capitol, the MPAA is pouring in money trying to stop history.
Re:why? (Score:3, Insightful)
See, free trade is great when you move the DVD production overseas, but it's bad when customers are allowed to buy it at overseas prices. Fuck you, MPAA, and the stupid, plotless vehicle you rode in on.
NTSC/PAL (Score:2, Insightful)
no (Score:1, Insightful)
It has nothing to do with language and all to do with money. Why else would they put China in a region all to themselves if not to combat piracy?
Re:Industry's 2 "real" reasons for region coding (Score:3, Insightful)
Yet another reason is that DVD:s are a lot cheaper in the US than in Europe. They also tend to have better picture quality. With the ease of buying stuff from overseas, they'll kill the ability to markup their product in these markets.
One final reason is to stop 'grey imports' of stuff from one market to another, which would erode the market dominance of the distributors.
In Europe (or at least in Sweden) this is moot; I don't think I've even seen a region-locked DVD player for sale in the last year.
Re:It was a bad idea to begin with... (Score:4, Insightful)
You don't really mean that do you? I mean seriously, does ANYONE see DVD region-encoding as ANYTHING but a ludicrously obvious effort by producing companies to introduce market control and artificial scarcity, thus allowing inflated pricing?
You are a company, you have a right to try to sell your products for as high a price as the market will bear. The market, on the other hand has a right (yes, a right) to try to force your prices as low as it can. If the perceived total net cost of piracy is less than your selling price, you lose. You can (as the RIAA, BSA, etc) try to raise the perceived cost of piracy, at the cost of goodwill.
The internet killed region-encoding, plain and simple. It'll kill any similar effort at market control such as inflated digital media pricing (note to RIAA: piracy will dissolve if you reduced your prices to something commensurate with the music's value....), and even the stupid German book price-fixing laws.
Good riddance to blatantly greedy marketing schemes. Go start a chain-letter or something.
The effect also happens in reverse... (Score:3, Insightful)
One upcoming example is a show called ".hack//SIGN" (pronounced
An example of a show that will NEVER make it to the US is "Puni Puni Poemi". If you wanna know what it's about just use your favorite search engine. Due to various themes that range from sexual to silly it just doesn't fit into any of the main stream US "catagories". "People" want either pr0n or silliness. "They" don't want both. Personally I found the show to be downright hilarious. Even though I wouldn't show it to any kids
Small children (Score:3, Insightful)
Hmmm, who the fsck would record a dvd to vhs anyways.
Parents of small children would, to avoid damaging their copy of "Adventures of Pinocchio" that the kids watch every night. Keep the purchased DVD copy as a backup and let the kids dest^H^H^H^Hwatch a copy on a $2 VHS tape. The Supreme Court has maintained that this is a fair use.
That is, until Congress enacted a bill that created 17 USC 1201 [cornell.edu], which gives publishers the right to outlaw fair use.
Region Encoding (Score:2, Insightful)
With that said, the part of me with the 2 business degrees understands why the region codes exist: max profit. Make no mistake, every "good" (define that how you like) business decision was made to improve the bottom line, not for "art," "the cause," or what-have-you. As a result the region free DVD players are a godsend. But you might want to see if buying one in your area is illegal. If not: then get 2, they're cheap and small, and you can always use the backup ("cheap" means "cheap," people. Substandard parts used in exchange for the functionality you desire--it's a tradeoff....)
Re:The economics of region encoding (Score:3, Insightful)
Movies (and many other kinds of intellectual property) sell at different prices in different countries, due to differences in purchasing power.
Translation: The MPAA uses their monopoly powers to engage in price fixing.
However, without region encoding there would be nothing to stop someone in the USA importing and re-selling movies from Australia. The end result would be that prices would be roughly the same in all countries.
Yes; it's called a free market. In the process of prices becoming stable, money would flow into Australia to put them on equal economic footing with the countries they trade with. In short, the region encoding hurts Australia to benefit the MPAA.
So maybe the breakdown of region encoding isn't as good for consumers as you might first think ..
Keep thinking. Region codes aren't in place for the good of anyone but those that put them in place: the movie studios. Yet, as history has shown (e.g. the VCR) those same people are absolutely clueless when it comes to understand what business methods can help or harm them. The consumers actually do know better, and breaking region codes will likely end up benefiting the MPAA greatly, but I doubt they'll ever be thanking us.
Re:why? (Score:3, Insightful)
see a problem with that. But the lock that prevents cross-usage is still
no justified by a ratings difference. Sorry.
when technology fails... (Score:3, Insightful)
keep an eye out for legislation making encoding mandatory, and backdoors for devices that are designed to primarily play dvds illegal.
Re:Price Controls (Score:3, Insightful)
Prices might go up a bit in these countries, but a much more likely effect will be prices dropping in the US. Which sounds great to me. Ask yourself this: since DVDs cost about as much to license + manufacture as CDs, how can they justify selling them at double the cost? Especially considering that most movies have allready made enough in theater profits to completely cover the cost of manufacturing and promoting the DVD 100 times over.
Doesn't explain it still... (Score:2, Insightful)
Basically, even if they adopted a region by region advertising system, it doesn't hurt them if somebody in a region not-yet-advertisted-in buys the DVD. They get the money just the same, so your point still stands as to why they might spend their time marketing a DVD in various regions, but not why they would need a whole system to keep you from buying and playing DVDs from another region.
Re:Doesn't explain it still... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Unfortnately 'multi-region' players wont work s (Score:1, Insightful)