DVD Zoning Enforced In Law

hysterion writes: "A recent bill from the French government makes the headlines of the major daily paper Libération. (Translation here.) Currently, French law prohibits DVD sales of any movie during its first 9 months in theatres. While reducing this to 6 months, the bill aims to kill a thriving import market by now including foreign issues -- even if they are not dubbed or subtitled in French. In effect, starting January 1, "any importation of zone 1 DVD or VHS of movies which have obtained a visa of exploitation in French theatres is prohibited." Can they really hope to enforce this? Or will movies eventually have to come out simultaneously in all parts of the world? (Irony: the Secretary of Culture who wrote this bill is also on record speaking against software patents.)" Apparently the law will ban any Zone 1 DVD permanently if the French distributors have, or plan to, show the same movie in French theaters (and presumably release it on Zone 2 DVD some time after that).

Comments

To play a little game of Devil's Advocate...

[Obiwan Kenobi]

I'd like to say that I for one think this law is a very good idea, and I'm glad the French are enforcing it.

A Gasp! is heard through the crowd.

But why? You ask. Well, I'll tell you. For one, movies don't come out at the same time all over the world. While we Americans love to think the world revolves around us (and there are many who'll never think otherwise), that's just not the case. While a DVD may come out over here for What Lies Beneath this January, it just opened in Italy. So you wonder, why would the Italians bother seeing it at all if they could get the DVD in a few weeks?

I'm all for supporting the filmmakers I like, love and respect. I would be happy to give my money towards Ridley Scott's efforts, or Paul Thomas Anderson's, or Darren Aranofsky's, and theatrical runs are what fuel the fire for them to get financing so they can (hopefully) make better movies. Of course it's all about money, and the fact that studios don't have all the legalese worked out for distrobution by the time it hits American audiences. But the point still remains that a filmmakers efforts are (normally) judged by either:

a) How much the film makes at the theaters, or

b) How many awards it takes.

You have to have one or the other, and hopefully both. American Beauty wasn't racing up the box office until it won Best Picture, Actor, Director, Cinematography and Screenplay. After that, Dreamworks Re-released it (for the third time) and it made its way over 100 million. Sometimes the best films get looked over, and believe it or not, Region Coding can actually help films from becoming that way.

It's still business, I'll freely admit, but it's also a question of loyalty and how far you'll go (all the way to the theater) to support the directors/actors/writers you like.

The /. Article is misleading

[petard]

According to the article in libé, Zone 1 DVD's are only banned during the period that videos are banned, and they reduced that.

The French have a law stating that movies cannot be sold on video (OR DVD) for 6 months after they hit the theaters. It used to be 9! They cannot appear on pay per view for 9 months and on premium movie channels (Canal+) for 1 year. This law simply bans selling Zone 1 DVDs of the movie while the ban is in effect. These fell into a loophole before.

Honestly, it's no worse than the old law was! A little better even, since the time has been reduced. The real "accros" will be able to get their fix over the net anyway.

pétard

Re:The French are paranoid about their culture

[AndrewD]

The real reason they hate the US is that after they bankrupted themselves financing your revolution you made that pesky declaration of independence rather than becoming a french client state out of sheer gratitude. Grabbing Louisiana at fire-sale prices and then making a great deal of money out of it just added insult to injury in french eyes.

About the only way you could rub it in any further is by naming a few major landmarks after notable french defeats: most of the really good ones are gone (Trafalgar, Waterloo, Blenheim) and I imagine Dien Ben Phu Square is probably a bit near the quick for the US, but Washington DC could be suitably adorned with a "Napoleon Died A Lonely Death In Exile Avenue" at no great cost.

Coming to bury region codes, not to praise them

[squiggleslash]

The EU has some pretty strong laws against protectionism and using monopolies to differentiate the same product in two different areas on price, and I suspect that the whole DVD zoning thing is illegal under them.

Any bans on the basis of zone are probably void. The headline of this thread suggests that that's what the French government are "in effect" trying to do. Piffle. The French government are merely upholding the principle that the industry be allowed to release at different times in different countries, and in that respect they're undermining the region code system, not supporting it.

By putting into law the practice of releasing at different times, the region code becomes redundant for that purpose. It becomes infinitely easier therefore to attack it as merely an attempt to enforce price discrimination.

Could we see a few less "conclusion" based headlines on Slashdot please? 9 times out of 10 the wording seems to be some idiotic and unjustified "conclusion" that has nothing to do with the subject matter, or as in this case, is completely opposite to the likely effect. Normally we call unjustified, unargued, highly-opinionated sermons on any subject trolls. At what point do we regard Slashdot's editors as no better than the Hot Grits/Goat Sex crowd?
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