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Importing PSX2 Illegal?
An anonymous reader sent us to a gamepot article that tells us that importing a PSX2 (currently available only in Japan) is actually illegal. The demand on this box is amazing, but consider what it is capable of, its probably well deserved.
OK - here goes (hopefully I won't screw this up)
/. articles for explanation - I'm not getting into that here).
::grin:: Time to get back to work.
Encryption: Needed to protect the DVD player code under license from DVD-CCA. They require this. If Sony wants their machine to legally play DVDs, they have to play by DVD-CCAs rules (unfortunately)
Region codes: $$$. By implememting region codes on the DVDs and games and whatnot, they can charge $x for the game/dvd in Japan (where $x is the going price over there for such things) and charge $y for the game/dvd in the US (where $y is the going price over here for such things).
Now, the industrious, smart person, in a world free of region codes, might say:
"Hmm...Considering the exchange rate, I can import the game from Japan cheaper than I can buy it here in the US."
...and proceeds to do this. It doesn't matter to the companies if the game has been released here or not. They view it as losing $ since this smart person is getting the game for less than they'd like to sell it to him for *where he is*.
Thus, region codes are implemented.
Now technically, as far as I can understand, price fixing based on location is illegal (IANAL, so any who are, can you confirm this?) - but somehow they've managed to circumvent that by placing blocks in the HARDWARE that prevent playback of games/dvds from other "regions".
Now...as for DVD-CCA knowing that DeCSS would happen? Sure they did. And I'm sure their thoughts went something like this:
"We should encrypt the data, and use a key to decrypt it, but license the keys, so we make $$ every time someone wants to make a player, or encode their movies to DVD."
"Good idea - but how should we encrypt it - Hiring someone good at crypto is expensive, and there are export restrictions - this could cost us a lot of $!"
"So we use a weaker, easier crypto to encrypt it."
"But it'll get "cracked" by those "hackers" who will pirate the DVDs and players and we'll lose more $!
"No problem - by the time they do that, we'll have made enough money to take them to court. They won't be able to afford to fight it out long in court, so we'll win. Then we'll have a legal prescedent in our favor, and we'll win all the other cases we decide to fight on similar ground."
...and so, a couple years down the road, here we are, DeCSS is a reality, and the DVD-CCA is suing one of the "authors" (see past
::sigh:: It's sad that the US legal system allows stuff like this to happen. The consumer is bilked out of as much $ as possible, and noone has the $ to fight the corps in court (the EFF is making a valiant effort though!). Thus, the corps not only get what they want, but they make it harder for anyone to challenge them in the future. Their power grows, and the power of the consumer to fight against them is diminished.
The solution isn't government. PACs and "special interest groups" have seen to that. The corps just sponsor some SIG with enough cash to buy the votes they need in congress, or to push through laws with "amendments" that serve their purposes and provide loopholes for them.
So the government isn't going to help. The corps have made it nearly impossible to fight them in court, so the courts won't help either. What can help? I don't know. Things may be too far gone to be salvaged.
BUT there are organizations like the EFF that are TRYING to fight crap like this. Hopefully they'll make a difference.
OK, I've rambled on FAR longer than I should