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.

Comments

Re:In a global world, this could be the end

[Baki]

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.

We suck

[AcidMonkey]

I consider myself a patriotic American, but lately...well, we suck.

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!

Re:We suck

[Jedi Alec]

My fellow Americans...we're doing something wrong!

Seems the Aussi's will be our next world leaders. Guess I'll have to practice on my English, eh?

Re:We suck

[sulli]

You are absolutely right.

DVD region encoding is one of the most insidious technologies out there today - it enforces a multi-tier world in which only some people have the right to see and hear stuff. Although it probably isn't illegal under the First Amendment, it is terrible for folks who live in other regions - and can be used to enforce censorship by the authorities there.

Perhaps a similar lawsuit could be filed here? Is there an antitrust case to be made against the MPAA and DVD licensors? "Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, is declared to be illegal" under the Sherman Antitrust Act, after all.

Re: we suck

[cyber-vandal]

the Americans government is still playing dumb

Not just playing anymore now that Dubya is the boss.

In a global world, this could be the end

[Kiss the Blade]

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. I say this because the world has now become so sonnected in both the communicative and physical sense, that if Australia bans DVD zoning, its as though a place in my backyard has done so; its no problem to import the players and DVD's from Australia itself.

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.

Re:In a global world, this could be the end

[nstrug]

Any sillier than the current trade war between Europe and the US over bananas - which are not produced in either country/trade bloc?

Re:In a global world, this could be the end

[Baki]

Not silly at all, though it wouldn't be stated that obviously. There are blockades going on all the time. At the moment it is about beef (with hormones, which the EU doesn't want but US claims it is only a protective measure), bananas, and countermeasures, and countermeasures on that.

If you would read some (non-US?) papers you would know that global trade is a war going on. And the US is, to put it mildly, not one of the most peaceloving nations in that respect. It uses it's (trade)power to support US domestic industry, at expense of foreign and consumer interests.

US restricts imports from state subsidized foreign companies (which is OK), but at the same time gives special tax cuts for US based companies exports (which is also state subsidizing).

In this context: the US pushes more and more strict copyright and IP laws through, everywere around the world. Almost all pushes towards more stringent Intellectual Property protection, software patents etc come after US pressure. Since they know that most profitors of IP and copyright protection (i.e. media content providers, software producers etc) are located in the US, thus US gains and the rest looses from stricter protection in these areas.

I am very sure that if, say, China would have the worlds major software producers, that the US would not at all be so eager to get more and more stringent IP protection laws such as the DMCA, crazy patent system etc.

Thus, I would not be surprised at all if a future US government would impose trade restrictions upon states that do not enforce the DVD zoning mechanism.

Too bad...

[Amomynous Coward]

...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.

Re:Already illegal in New Zealand (i think)

[Zilch]

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

More to it than this...

[wish bot]

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

not convenience, fair use

[Quietti]

I'll give you two examples of what fair use means, and how DVD's encryption breaks it:

1. 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.

2. 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.

--

As an Australian..

[Rob from RPI]

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!

already illegal in new zealand (i think)

[elbobo]

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

Warner warns us ? (and others issues)

[mirko]

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) ?

--

Region Free

[ShadowDragon]

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

Re:This is such crap!

[Fervent]

If you don't like the restriction codes, why not buy VHS copies of foreign films you are interested in? That's what I do (owning a DVD player and a movie player have distinct advantages).

What this REally Means

[Anonymous Coward]

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.