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Australian Consumer Body May Attack DVD Zoning.
__Paul__ writes "The Age has a
report that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
is considering launching an attack on DVD zoning, because it restricts competition. At least this Australian governmental body still has a clue, even if the rest of them don't." I lust after a DVD region free world. Its just such a pain.
Exactly. You can bet that there are already sweatshops and factories churning out bootleg DVD players (along with the bootleg DVDs) all over the place, especially in countries like China. Fortune magazine had an article on the amount of counterfeiting done in China, and it is immense. You can bet that they love the concept of region codes, as they can produce bootlegs of region-coded DVD players to sell at lower costs and region-free DVD players to sell at higher costs (but still lower then non-bootleg DVDs, as the counterfeiters had to do no R&D and therefore don't have to recoup that money).
So which would you rather have? A region-coded DVD player, or a region-free one that is most likely counterfeited, but so much more useful?
Kierthos
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
So then America would have to blackmail the rest of the world again, threatening with trade war if others (Australia, Europe) don't do as the USA wishes, in order to protect US domestic industry.
This has happened time after time, sometimes with success. It is to be hoped that such an anti-consumer measure as DVD zoning, and US backing of that (with threats and blackmail) would get so much negative public attention in the rest of the world that these maffia practices will no longer be accepted.
Yeah, I tend to think that if serious campaign reform managed to get passed by the House and Senate, we might see some changes. Until then, the big spenders that are the corps have the money to control the guvmint.
I have to wonder how different it would be if every company that made DVD players was foreign based....
Kierthos
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
This restriction only applies to .com.au; there's still .id.au (for individuals), .org.au (only for registered non-profit orgs) and .net.au
Personally, I am impressed with countries that, both do the
I support the idea of only giving companies and registered organizations domains, and in that case, giving each only one. It encourages the use of subdomains, and it doesn't litter the namespace with useless domains, whose only purpose is because the domain was avaliable. (Free registration services like Name Zero make this even worse). If you really want a domain, register a company (as i was going to do to obtain a .ca) The cluttering of the .com/.net/.org namespace has almost rendered the DNS system a bit impotent.
Just my $0.02
-legolas
i've looked at love from both sides now. from win and lose, and still somehow...
Cars are inanimate objects. They have not, can not and never will do anything on their own. More Cars != More Pollution.
Factories are inanimate objects. They have not, can not and never will do anything on their own. More Factories != More Production.
--
Read more of this story at Slashdot.Read more of this story at Slashdot.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
In my opinion, it just takes one major country to step out of line to render the DVD zoning attempts by the industry moguls more or less obsolete.
The way it's going it's going to be at least one continent given that New Zealand has already taken the same position.
How about re-organizing your texts in such a fashion that one can get a complete picture of your ideas and grounding them on facts which you present with clear evidence?
DVDs and players produced in the US will continue to be zoned,
How many players and DVDs are actually produced in the US anyway? At a guess the closest they'd get to being produced there would be Mexico.
Your tagline is three sentences. Your first two sentences are statements of fact. Fear the GOVERNMENT that fears your gun.
Democracy cannot exist when representatives and parties are allowed to get "funding", i.e. be bribed by lobby groups, i.e. those with most money to spend, the big corporations, get their way over the will of the people.
It's probably worst, there are undoubtedly political lobby groups in the US who have managed to get tax revenue to fund their lobbying. e.g. those claiming to represent "oppressed minorities".
YOU are the one with intentional misunderstandings.
As for ungrounded accusations, you only have to look at the background of many people involved in legal profession. By not allowing
Writing is not one of my skills - mainly consists of logic and insight
There are many facts in there for those with the *INTELLIGENCE* to see.
Primarily: that an identifier, country and class are essential for Internet trademark domains.
ALSO:
That they stop free speech by not allowing people to use words they wish
That they break unfair competition law giving only one business use of name when many others have it.
That they steal peoples property off them.
That they fail to protect us from fraud with certificate of authentication.
ETC. ETC. ETC.
In a way they transcend the govt (within their jurisdiction), if they say that DVD's region coding is anticompetitive, and want to stop it, they can and will. If the govt gets enough pressure from outside, they'll knock back the ACCC's decision.
Thing is, going against tbe ACCC is not wise, especially in an upcoming election year (can ye imagine govt election ads gettin' moderated heavier than opposition ones because of a grudge? =).
The ACCC has and hopefully always will be the sane side of Australian law.
Cheers,
leroy.
You can bet that there are already sweatshops and factories churning out bootleg DVD players (along with the bootleg DVDs) all over the place,
"bootleg" DVDs are utterly trival. Unless the production lines had the security of a mint. Either run off a few (thousand) extra or inflate the number of "duds".
Therefore I feel that no company or corporation should be allowed to give money to a politician. Not that I know of a practical solution to allow the rich and the poor to have equal influence on the government without restricting rights.
Blarg.
Those who don't know me, probably shouldn't trust me. Those that do know me, DEFINITELY shouldn't trust me.
Don't go thinking your country is backwards.
French sued over Echelon, meanwhile the Americans government is still playing dumb
Granted, but the DGSE, French secret service, has established listening posts in the Dordogne and overseas territories territories. Sure the French government admits to other government's spy network, but to be impressive they must admit to their own spy network.
And now Australia...
Admitly, Australia does appear to be on a higher horse than most others. They participate in Echelon, but without the automatic request program (the "dictionary program") rightfully claiming the program allows America and the UK to abuse it for industrial espionage. And now this dvd stuff is also credit to them.
America, like all countries, has its room room for improvement. They can learn from aspects of other countries, like perhaps the "DVD perspective" aspect of Australia - but America doesn't "suck".
Most region free players sold here (Switzerland) also have the option to manually set the region, making it look 100% like a region 1 player, or a region 4 or whatever. This is exactly meant to play such DVD's (they already exist for a while).
The biggest risk is the DVD manufacturers being forced to make DVD players where the zoning is harder (impossible?) to crack. If they don't cooperate they might loose their license to produce them.
OTOH, with prices of players dropping, and also portable DVD players becoming more widespread, you might just buy one or two extra DVD players abroad to get the missing zones. Maybe in the future we'll all have 3 DVD players because of this crazy zoning scheme.
Unless the DVD Mafia even gets to control worldwide trade there's not much they can do about that. Once they try that, politicians might finally realise what bunch of criminals they have been supporting.
To expand further on my considered and informed opinions.
Many of the people involved have worked in legal profession. They have been asked why they do not introduce
They do not deny that it will solve the problems and make things legal. They are unable to think of excuse not to use it. Others in the legal profession have told me it will solve problems (honourable people).
Big business may not like it - but in law we all have to abide by rules.
Come on then big shot. What do you logically deduce from this?
I thought there already was a Barbie on every beach in California. Several, in fact, and a considerable number of Kens too.
We finally got it working on a friend's PC, and watched it. It was great, we all enjoyed it.
In Denmark it is almost easier to get a code free player than a non-free one. There is absolutely nothing in Danish law stating that a dvd player must use the region codes. So from many dealers you get one or more of these options:
- Get a player that will only play region 2 discs. (If you get it cracked later it will void the warranty)
- Pay a little extra and they will crack it for you. (You still get full warranty)
- They have already cracked it so you don't even get a choice.
All of the above are fully legal. We got everything from small dealers to large chains selling code-free players. I can't speak for the rest of europe but i would imagine other countries would be like that too(?)The French sued over Echelon, meanwhile the Americans government is still playing dumb with the citizens.
American courts are taking cues from American (or international-but-mostly-American) corporations to bully 16-year-old kids on the other side of the world.
And now Australia, which is not generally big in world politics (no offense), is the one to step up and say "hey, this sucks!" to the MPAA.
My fellow Americans...we're doing something wrong!
Got Warez?
DVDs cost about a buck to make - not much different from a video cassette. And prices are getting cheaper all the time so much so that PC magazines ship DVDs on their covers
More likely similar costs to CD's since they are a similar technology. Video Cassettes are likely to cost far more. Since they use more material and the production is more complex/labour intensive.
While the Aussie Government occasionally shows some signs of intelligent life, keep in mind that they're the same ones that passed internet censorship laws unparalleled in the free world. Personally I prefer our government, which is uniformly stupid and therefore much more predictable. That way you don't have to worry about getting your hopes up.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
The world is in a constant downward spiral as a result of everyone infinitely suing everyone else. Is it not obvious that the world revolves around money? Can't we just do things for each other and be happy? Apparently we are too far gone for such a thing, but wouldn't it be nice.
I like cheese.
The only way I can see my vision being thwarted is if the major film companies decide to boycot the Australian market alltogether. It may be worth it for them, financially, in the short term to do so, but I think the ire and publicity would be too much.
God bless Australia fair.
KTB:Lover, Poet, Artiste, Aesthete, Programmer.
KTB:Lover, Poet, Artiste, Aesthete, Programmer.
There is no
Just to put the debate to rest:
Tom Cruise IS indeed a fucked up scientologist dipshit with a demon grafted onto his head. And yet people still pay to watch his stupid movies. Stupid, Stupid Americans. You will all burn. Ha Ha Ha!
The best movie I saw in 2000 came from Italy;
"Tulips & Breadcrumbs." Go watch. (Or "Breadcrumbs & Tulips". I dyslexic am.)
-Fantastic Lad --The most frustrated Lad of them all!
...other government agencies couldn't "think" so clearly.
But ACCC chairman Professor Allan Fels says they also act to keep prices high by restricting competition.
"These restrictions are artificially imposed by a group of multinational film entertainment companies," Professor Fels said.
It's a good bet we won't see any US agencies speaking out the same way. And that's a shame.
Blaming guns for crime is like blaming keyboards for first posters. More Guns != More Crime
If you can find his movie, you win a prize because it ain't easy to locate. (After all, it's got the entire weight of the American Film Distribution muscle behind it. Like, waaaay behind it. Like in a different time zone, behind it. Sitting on its fat ass jerking off over Charlie's Slutz dolls.).
America is an evil fucking joke. You need a violent & bloody revolution BAD. Noook Dubyah. It's your only hope.
Fantastic Lad --The greatest costumed Lad of them all!
This is rather interesting, especially coming out of a government which over the past two terms of power have shown a great arrogance towards anything which may boost Info Tech or any other form of Technology in this country.
Oh for the election in 2001!
Must not have Liberal Party henchmen on it's board.
--- acb!irc.slashnet.org
probably more like 'enterprise-is-free-to-do-anything-they-want' which includes dictating sales conditions.
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
--Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
Its just such a pain.
Apparently CT believes the proper use of apostrophies ranks right up there with DVD zoning. For those interested in leet skills like correct grammar, the word "it's" is a contraction of "it" and "is". On the other hand, "its" is a possesive pronount. You can check by breaking it out as in "It is just such a pain."
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Here in Germany it is no problem to get a code-free DVD-Player. I got a Pioneer DV-535, and I only paid $40 to remove the code-chip AND the Macrovision chip.
Merry Christmas from germany.
They done a good job of messing around with cable ISPs, but they don't really have a great deal of juristiction over this do they? Can they force Australia DVD players to be multi-region? I doubt it.
--
enterfornone - logging in for a change
Average Joe User can't play his import copy of 'Dogma' - learns about region coding, and goes looking for a multi-region hack. Whist doing so, he discover's Macrovision removers, DeCSS, DiVX ;-) etc...
Most shops selling or renting DVDs in Switzerland have about 25% region 1 DVD's, the rest being region 2. This only shows how common it is to have multiregion DVD players.
Btw there is a small difference between multiregion and regionfree: Multiregion means it switches to a region, in a way the DVD cannot "see" it. Some DVD's don't play in regionfree players, but multiregion cannot be defeated (should it not work automatically you can always set the region manually).
>Our fashions, such as the scooter craze, are direct copies of America's.
Actually some Yanks we had staying with us for the Olympics were out buying scooters (Razor clones) while they were here because they really hard to find in the USA - so "go figure".
- Zilch
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is a vigorous body that backed by powerful Australian trade practices law (the infamous Trade Practices Act), has proven itself on previous occasions to be unafraid of tackling multinational organisations in the name of consumer rights. It was the ACCC that stared down Epson forcing them to revise globally campaigned performance claims for inkjet printers. A disturbing ambivalence in the ACCC press release pertaining to DVD regional encoding related to their concern with consumer awareness as opposed to the obvious inequities in the encoding philosophy itself. My faith remains however in the ACCC's proven ability to influence global trade practices out of all proportion to the size of the Australian population and its willingness to respond to consumer pressure. www.accc.gov.au Email your support soon and often...
Actually, most movies available on tape cost around $20 apeice before DVD's came out. Now DVD's cost $20 a pop and VHS tapes are starting at about $12 (with the "bargin bin" tapes going for $8).
VHS got cheaper -- dvd's didn't get more expensive.
LOL LOL LOL
Don't be silly. We are already an American state.... aren't we?
Professor_Phreek
When the hell did the US annex Quebec? Or, alternatively, when the hell did Canada start calling itself America?
Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
"I Believe the world is down under and Australia is on top..."
So get ready and start building a barby on every beach in California, we'll pay you a visit soon...
I hate to agree with davecrazy but...
Rich
OK, totally off topic rant here. Be forewarned...
Free world, free world, free world!!! What the fuck is the free world? I'll tell you--the free world is the USA, and it allies of the week. That's what people mean when they use the term, and it all goes back to George Bush (sr.) claiming to be the Leader Of The Free World. (and we abuse Al Gore for his 'inventing the internet' slip, which was taken out of context???)
Well fuck the free world, the poor enslaved world (everyone else, presumably) and the lot of it. The irony of the US (of all places!) being the leader of the free world is just sickening. I propose we ban the phrase from common use.
Whew! OK, end of rant.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
Sony 715 - hack also removes macrovision. No manual with the hack ... (installed by the store)
it's in my head
now if only the individual countries competition commisions could get together rather than doing this unilaterally there would be some real power do actaully chnage all this zone stuff.
Yeah, I have heard something about that before, but I have been away from NZ (and watching one-eyed Aussie TV for too long) to keep up with the news over there. Can anyone elaborate?
It would fit in with NZ's ideas on "the freedom to parallel import" (and the freedom to sell lamb in the USA) quite well. They already told Chrysler to get knotted when they tried to stop people bring in second hand cars. (Not that anyone buys American cars over there anyway - Ha!)
I would even be happy if they just made it 100% legal to de-region players in NZ. Not that it is hard to find region-free players over there, but it could be a good industry for them - selling DeCSS based software and hacked firmware updates to US customers!
Also if everyone in NZ started buying DVD's from the overseas on the Internet (or off someone who had) then they would eventually have to drop the price of disks there, bring out a better selection, and start playing movies in the cinemas on time (rather than 6 months after the rest of the world).
Zilch
The problem isn't in players, silly. It's in the availability of DVD movies in other regions.
While I wholeheartedly agree that DVD zoning is a bad idea and harmful to consumers, the free marketer in me has to admit that the DVD licensors have the right to establish zones if they want. What's missing is an alternative to DVD. Competition won't really exist until there's an alternative format, or unless DVD becomes an open format so everyone can play on an equal footing.
Now if only someone with the capital and inkling would wake up and develop an alternative format to DVD that was more attractive to consumers--then we'd have competition and the DVD zoning issue would just go away due to natural selection.
All the DVDs I have bought from Hong Kong are region free. They may not always have the highest quality added features, but at least the market is smart enough there to realize they can make more money by selling to the world rather than a variety of regions. In that regard, not having major international distribution capability is an *advantage* in the market. Maybe if the Australian film and distribution industry went region free, then we'd have a story.
The Australian Consumer and etc commission is actually an *independent* body, seperate from the Government (although funded by). It is set up to challenge actions *it* regards as damaging to competition. You have to realise that this body takes its job *very* seriously, and does actually have huge powers (defined by Australian law - so actually anyone could make this claim, but the ACCC just has the nouse to do it). If it decides that DVD zoning is harming competition, then it will use the courts to made it illigal in Aus. It should also be noted that it wasn't so long ago they broke the music industry's monoploly by allowing cheap asian imports. This could turn into a very good thing
lemonade was a popular drink and it still is
Well, coming from Australia this is a great idea! I have just discovered my computer is severely restricted as it's DVD drive is region restricted and can only be modified a few more times before it stays stuck in the last zone it was modified to(Bad news if it's not whatever region Australia is)It's about time someone (esp. Aust) said something about this crap.
Why yes, all my base are belong to you.
How did you guess?
VHS is auto-regioning because of the differences between formats. Have you heard if PAL/NTSC? (SECAM?)
This is the type of control that the big players are trying to artificially maintain by region codes.
(And yes, I will ignore the fact that VHS is poor quality - I think even you realise that)
Zilch
See my post above. The chances are these movies are not going to be out on VHS either. And if CD's are anything to go by, in a few years you won't be able to get many of the movies on crappy VHS anymore.
Zilch
The Rules of DVD and how they hurt consumers [not just RPC and CSS]
* Consumers have to pay inflated local prices, becuase unlike books and CDs, we can't get content overaseas at resonable prices that works with our system
* Limited range of titles - especially those of us who are fans of foreign cinema
* Being forced to wait until a movie has been released at the cinemas locally and had a full run before we can own a film. As an example of that, Bring it On has just been released in Australia. In the US, its been out on DVD for quite some time.
* Inability for consumers to create content on DVDRs due to the relevant bits already being pre-written as part of licensing for the technology
* Users are forced to sit through anti-copyright statements and DVD consortium ads, with a disabled fast forward button. Many movies force the user to sit through the same copyright statement in a variety of languages before the movie starts. The DVD versions of current [one minute or so] VHS anti-copyright advertisements are inevitable.
In my considered and informed opinion:
They use zoning to screw as much profit out of each market place - GREED. We in the UK are specially profitable to them.
Intellectual Property is the excuse big business use in the courts for this greed. We as individuals have no rights in this area - see what the United Nations organization WIPO are doing, stealing peoples domains.
Details on my site - WIPO.org.uk - This Organization has no connection with, and wishes to be totally disassociated from, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO.ORG).
The thing that really upsets me about the DVD zoning, on top of the principle (which we all knew was going to happen, Britain isn't going to stop being ripped off by American companies) is the practical results. I know /loads/ of people who were really looking forward to DVD because it would finally mean that if a video was released anywhere, we'd finally get to see it - so all those great things we'd always wanted to see again, but were available in PAL we'd finally see. I'm very glad the region-encoding has been cracked, though it kinda upsets me that we're finally getting to see good things we want to /in spite/ of the publishers, not because of them!
That's one of the reasons, but not the most important one.
Most titles are also available in Europe, albeit a little later every now and then. Although that wasn't the case for Jurassic Park, Gladiator or Virgin Suicides, those titles were available in Europe as soon as or in case of the latter title even sooner than the USA. There are also quite a few European region 2 releases not on region 1. Of course not the big Hollywood releases, but if you're a fan of Dr. Who or current english series such as Cold Feet, you're a lot better of with region 2.
I think the biggest reason is simply the MPAA/DVD-CCA having a much stronger position in Northern America than Europe. While I cannot say I agree with all decision of the European Commity regarding technology issues, it does seem that European consumers have more rights than American ones or at least better ways to protect and use those rights.
The ACCC is an excellent organization - they do wonders for this country. The ACCC staff work very hard for us here in .au.
For those of you that want to contact the ACCC to voice your support, you can email the CEO, Brian Cassidy: (brian.cassidy@accc.gov.au)
That reminds me, would you damned Yankees stop calling yourselves Americans? America is the name of a 3-part continent, not a country. Dig that!
--
Software is not supposed to be about how to work around a useability issue. - Ken Barber
True, but that does not give the industry unlimited control over how their products are used after they are sold. See the "first sale" and "fair use" doctrines, both of which the DMCA unconstitutionally attempts to destroy. If I'm in the US and I want to buy a Japanese DVD, certainly the movie producer is not obligated to sell it to me. However, if I find a willing seller who obtained their copy legally, the producer should have no authority to prevent that exchange. But region coding and DMCA-backed penalties for circumventing it do in fact prohibit that, which is just one of many reasons why both should be eliminated.
How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
I would even be happy if they just made it 100% legal to de-region players in NZ.
When we bought a DVD player a little while ago, at the same time as buying it, we paid a small extra fee (NZ$20 or so) for the shop (or possibly Sony) to modify it to be regionless. (and it works, too)
IANAL etc, but I guess that suggests it is quite legal :-)
--
Repton.
Repton.
They say that only an experienced wizard can do the tengu shuffle.
So what's my point here... You reason by -rules-are-rules-. In my point of view rules are a method for servicing certain goal. Reasoning rules-are-rules, actually makes these rules a goal.
First of all, most countries do not have legal rules for these region based encryption. So there are no rules. So there is no rules-are-rules reasoning.
Countries exist, where getting something for free is legal. There are also countries who illegalize the piracy of copyrighted work, but do not act to maintain the law, or only follow the guys who mass-pirate copyrighted work (i.e. mafia).
Point is, that there *rules* are:
1. Temporary
2. Differ geographically
So point is, that many countries do not have the same interest as the USA. The USA's interest for DVD's is to take away people's freedom, in non-Anglo Saxon Euro-countries, freedom is a cherished privilege.
In other words, your statement 'play by the rules' and 'just accept the rules' don't make a sensible point. Every different culture has different values - there are no rules.
Bizar technology?
What are you jabbering about?!! For your information - region encoding is blatantly not about copy protection, it is about profit protection. At the moment movie releases are delayed by upto a year in some zones (if they are indeed ever released). Prices are also structured differently in each zone (which is what the ACCC's beef is about - and trust me, they know about shit like this). And despite all this, zoning makes it essentially impossible to get *decent* foriegn films (i realise that this wouldn't intrest a dipstick like you) and artifically extends the american film industry's stranglehold over world markets (by restricting all other films to their own zones). And besides, you might not be a global traveller, but those of us that move around every few years don't want to re-buy all our fucking films each time.
lemonade was a popular drink and it still is
Some titles are not available in all regions.
Because we, as individual consumers, can't force big companies to release their movies in all regions, using region free DVD players (or multiple DVD players) is the only way a customer is able to see the movies he wants to see (and for which he has bought the rights to see it).
I'm not against the wish of the movie industry to delay the release of movies per region (not that I like it, but I can understand their motivation to do it), but I'm against the fact that some movies won't be available in all regions.
What the creators of the DVD format should have done is set a timer on the disks, which makes the DVD region free after a certain date.
From your comment, I can only assume you live in North America. If you live in Europe there are lots of good reasons to want to play Region 1 DVDs.
There are about 10 times as many Region 1 DVDs as Region 2 - which means that often the only way to see a less well known film on DVD is to get a Region 1 copy.
Also, (and this is especially true on older films) the Region 2 DVDs have less extras on them.
Price is also an issue. DVDs in the UK seem to cost about 1.5 times as much as they do in the US. Regional coding allows the film distributors to artifically inflate the price, because they know that people won't be able to play cheap imports.
However, I think many DVD players in this country are now sold multi-region - I recently bought one from Richer Sounds, and almost all the ones they sell are multi-region.
cheers,
Tim
You think vendors want region-ignorant customers coming back and saying "this thing's broken, it doesn't play these movies I bought on the internet"? No way. It's easier to just chip 'em and not mention it. So they do :)
Just like with playstations.
Oh, and Australia may have some stupid tech laws, but we don't take them seriously... they're just there to make wowsers feel in control of things they don't understand.
Software patents delenda est.
"Who is General Failure and why is he reading my hard disk ?"
stuff
Check out www.firmware.com.bi for a great list of RPC-1 hacks for DVD-ROM/RAM drives
I don't agree with that one. In Germany for example, you usally get US movies without bonus material and even that long after they are for sale in America. And belive it or not, there are people in Europe and America who would like to buy, say, japanese movies. Go to your local DVD shop and try!
"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master."
The full text of the official press release from the ACCC is here. I'm quite impressed. It's obvious they have done their homework on this one, mentioning how it differs from the PAL/NTSC/SECAM problems.
I disagree. My friends want a copy of "Condor Man", the Disney flick comedy Michael Crawford. It's only available on NTSC VHS, or Region 1 DVD. So, they bought a copy of the DVD, and I tried to tape it for them, using my macrovision stripper box. It didn't work. I can watch it on my TV, 'cos I have Scart. They don't, then only have coax, and my DVD doesn't have coax output, I have to feed it through the macrovision box, then through a VCR, in order to watch it on their box. Unfortunately, some DVDs don't work through the MV stripper. So, because of the movie industry's attempts to prevent piracy, we are denied our fair use rights. Now my reasoning is, copyright is a bargain between producer and user. Law allows us certain rights, while imposing certain restrictions on us that benefit the producer. So, if the producer strips us of the rights that law allows, then that implies that they do not believe that copyright law applies to their product. I'm not happy with that, 'cos my friends still can't watch Condor Man, but they should be prepared to live with the consequences of their actions in this respect. If I can copy it, I damn well will, and I won't feel morally restrained by their copyright any more.
I'll give you two examples of what fair use means, and how DVD's encryption breaks it:
I was born in the French-speaking spot of America known as Québec, but now live in Europe. Recently, my family sent me a DVD of a local production that became quite popular there, but I could not view it because it was encrypted for America, while my DVD player only accepts discs encoded for Europe.
It doesn't stop there.
I also happen to speak Russian and recently wanted to view DVD re-issues of classic movies from the Soviet era that some Russian friends recommended. I cannot, because Russia is in a different zone than Europe, so my DVD player refused to show them.
In effect, DSS prevented me from viewing two legally purchased DVD's, simply because of the Motion Picture Industry's greedy attitude.
So, as far as I'm concerned, the more countries that follow New Zealand's lead and demand zoneless DVD players, the merrier.
--
Software is not supposed to be about how to work around a useability issue. - Ken Barber
May I say, simply, YES! Thank you, Australian Government! However, I hate to admit, our goverment is so spineless (an amobea has more of a verterbre than our current government) that Sony or someone will frown slightly, or raise an eyebrow, and the guys in the big-white-funny-looking-building will do their usual belly-crawling and say 'Oh no, it was a big misunderstanding'
No, not cynical. Realistic.
--Rob
Comics:
Sluggy.com - Poing!
Schlock Mercenary.
i believe (although i may be wrong), that dvd region restrictions are already illegal in new zealand. or rather, they break an already in place law.
so any player you buy in nz is multi-region. certainly all the players i've bought have been unrestricted.
can anyone confirm this one for me? and are there other countries where this is already the case?
matt
I recently heard on the radio that Warner are about (if they had not already done it) to implement a test in their DVD movies : If the player is region-free, then the film will "refuse" to be played.
IMHO this is illegal and will force them to reimburse most of the people I know who bought their player before 1999/12/31st.
Maybe some "clever" law from Down-under has just made a step further.
BTW, "they" justify DVD-zoning by talking about the non-simultaneous movie availability around the world.
So : Why are "The Ten Commandments" only available in Zone 1 and not in Zone 0 ???
Is it about to be broadcasted in some hidden part of the globe (or on Mir) ?
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Trolling using another account since 2005.
Way to go Australia!!
I had to flash my DVD drive and decoder card to region-free it.
I pay a buttload of money to get obscure French DVD's for my collection and since they are not made in anything but Region 2 I do not see why those in non-region 2 zones should not be able to watch them. I can see maybe for those who try to pick up stuff from a country that sells them much cheaper.. but the DVD market would likely make more money by going region free, not everyone is willing/knows how to flash their DVD drives and such to be able to view rare disks
---The proceeding comments were not paid for by the following advertisers.
Yeah? What were they? Did they end in .au?
Zilch.
Not a bad thing in itself, but they need to create a domain structure that people can register for personal or non-profit purposes. I'm happy with the .gen.nz domain in New Zealand.
/. had been an Australian site? (ha!)
Having to register a company before you can register a domain really cuts down the internet sites in Australia. What if
Zilch.
Oh! You mean a company that you own has registered several domain names in Australia! (I stand by my comment. You can't register domain names in Australia) Zlich.
is Strine.
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enterfornone - logging in for a change
If I want a PS2, I wait for it to be released in the US. I don't go out and import one from Japan. How will they know where it ends up?
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
Again, buy VHS for the movies that are not yet available in DVD in your area.
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
I really can't see the problem. It is not
illegal to fix your dvd-player if it isn't already
region free but broken.
Here in Denmark most DVD-player are sold
region-free. Most ad has the region-free flag
attached because the shops know that people
wants region-free players.
Again, I don't see the problem at all.
If the code and the comments disagree, then both are probably wrong. - Schryer
...that this is the country where you can't register a domain name.
Also, I thought this had been tried in the UK already (by Woolworths I think) and we never heard any more about it.
Zilch
If the ACCC "does" act against DVD zoning, then australia will be the SECOND country in the asia region to do so ( New Zealand being the first). So what does this mean to the movies companies and MPAA and australians: Australia is about >10% of the total consumers in the zone 4 area, of which there are 25 or so countries, which equals to no big financial profit. If the supply of new released zone 4 movies were to be stopped (in australia), that would be ok, we'll just import them from Mexico . The ONLY major concern to movie companies and the MPAA, is the fact that ANTI-ZONING "law" might spread to the other Asia countries (which is currently divided into 4 different zones). This would mean that the movies companies would loss control over distribution and "price inflation" two over two billion consumers. Big Bucks!!!! This will leave the movie companies with only one last card, restrict supply. But no chance in that happening, that would only incourage people to pirate DVDs. In the end the most real outcome will be that australia and the rest of asia will be full of imported DVDs and pirated DVD. No matter what governments and the movie companies do. People are only interested in watching the movie, and paying the lowest price.
Americans don't really need region-free players as the sole purpose of region free players in Europe is to play American sone 1 films...
Of course there's Japanese anime but in my opinion the market for that isn't all that big...not when you compare it with the whole European market for Hollywood DVDs.
No market, no goods. That's why you don't have region-free DVD players.
Why do I need to buy a VHS recorder if I already have a DVD player ??
I wrote a letter to my local member in the Australian Federal Parliament, and he forwarded this onto the Attorney General. This shows they listen. So everyone else do it too.
Dear Attorney General, I have recently received a letter from one of my constituents, Mr Cameron Gray, concerning international and Australian policy toward the decryption of digital information for personal use. Whilst Mr Gray strongly agrees that copyright should be legally protected, and that the owners of information should be duly paid for their product, he is concerned that copyright legislation is being used by private corporations to simply enforce market monopolies, to the detriment of the consumer. Mr Gray argues that copyright legislation as it now stands prevents a person from developing software to bypass access controls, even where the viewing of the material so protected is entirely legal. An instance he provides is software that allows a person to view DVDs from other countries. He informs me that under current legislation, the development of this software is currently illegal, which reinforces market monopolies but is not related to effective protection of copyright. In the new information age, it is desirable for laws to allow as much access to digital information as possible without infringing rightful copyright. I would appreciate your consideration of Mr Gray's concerns, and your response as to how the Government will preserve the right of Australians to access the digital information now available locally and internationally. Thank you for your consideration of this matter and I look forward to your reply. Yours sincerely DR BRENDAN NELSON MP Federal Member for Bradfield
Sorry about the formatting. I just copy/pasted from WordPerfect.
-- Cheer, Cheer, The Red and the White.
They busted the Primus and One-Tel's balls for slagging off the compeditors with their door to door salesmen. And now this, they are saying regionalisation is a crock of shit (duh!) and are attempting to do something about it.
:- --- one happy man from OZ, me!
Just as i lost all faith over that damn internet bill that was passed back in Q1.
How every version of MICROS~1 Windows(TM) comes to exist.
Do the following really mean anything? SCSA MCP CCSA CCNA
--I'm not actually after an answer!
Furthermore, it's not much hassle to import region 1 titles either, plenty of Internet stores such as ThunderDVD.com and Bigstar.com to send me the goodies.
I haven't bothered to check regioncodes for many months now. And even if regionfree players aren't for sale where you live: there are plenty of websites to tell you your player can be turned into one with a $25 all-in-one remote-control.
The irony behind this whole situation is that the regions are supposed to stop DVD piracy but what sort of pirate is not going to know how to modify their player to play all regions? Meanwhile people who actually buy DVDs and DVD players get screwed with higher prices and an unnecessary annoyance.
I'm glad the government of a large country is starting to at least think about standing up to these media companies. We all know the US Congress is owned and paid for by these companies so don't expect any help from over here...
Awww. Did I hurt your Everyday American feelings?
I'm sorry.
But I actually DO blame you for Hollywood and the MPAA. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the 'Everyday American' is generally in full support of insane capitalist materialism. Hollywood and the MPAA are both direct results of this sort of national philosophy. The philosophy of unfettered Greed.
If you practice recycling, live close to work rather than own a car, don't support environmentally destructive technologies or invest in non-ethical mutual funds, make yourself aware of world issues and do your own research rather than suck on CNN's poison teat. . . If this is how you live, well then by all means, count yourself out of my gross generalization. Otherwise, shut the fuck up, because you're not just part of the problem; you ARE the problem.
In any case, it's your bloody country. If it isn't your responsibility, then whose is it? It's so damned typical. Consume like a rabid dog and stick your head in the sand when it comes to ramifications and clean up bills.
And it's, "She should HAVE flushed". Not "She should OF flushed." But gee, I guess I shouldn't blame you. It's just your fucked up school system speaking. But hey, there's nothing you can do about that, is there? You're just an Everyday American.
Wake up or drop dead.
Fantastic Lad --The most amazing Son Of A Crackwhore of them all!
If you account for all these things DVDs should be cheaper that video tapes. Unfortunately consumer ignorance prevailed just like it did with CDs - "DVDs are better quality therefore they must cost more to make and I must pay more!". Now we're stuck with the outrageous scam prices.
I was pleasantly surprised to see at least two ads for DVD players from major retailers in the UK that were for Region 1 *and* 2 players, even though the players were about GBP40 (US$60) more expensive than single region players. One player was branded Pioneer.
The region thing is senseless, of course. I commute between the UK and US with a laptop with a DVD player -- and this nonsense denies me full use of the equipment.
IIRC from tonights news, at the press conference, Professor Fels described DVDCA as an international cartel. In Australia, Professor Fels is viewed in very high regard by both the public and the media (who allways utilize him to help nail the bad guys in the current affairs shows). The news report was totally one-sided in support of this action (well, are there two sides?). I wonder if they can bring DeCSS into this (forcing consumers to buy unnessecary expensive software to play dvds on their computer (in trying to stop free alternatives))?
In other news tonight: "A man might sit down."