Australia Rules DVD's are Films, Not Software

divereigh writes: "The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that an Australian Federal court has decided this case in favour of the Australian Video Rental Association. The Association had taken Warner Home Video to court for trying to classify DVD's as software and thus double the price for those sold into the rental market."

Comments

Screw us with Broadband

[obi-1-kenobi]

For a second their People in australia were going to get screwed with DVDs and bradband... Good thing its now back to get screwed with broadband

DVD's are films?

[matroid]

Hmm... Maybe I'll watch some FreeBSD tonight.

No.

[volpe]

Does this mean Region Code Enhancement [...] scripting [...] would be banned in Oz?


No, it just means scripting isn't considered software, which we all knew already. Sorry, kiddies.

Not to mention...

[Kjella]

...the insanely expensive plane tickets to small places. It's cheaper for me (Germany) to fly to the USA than to fly home (Norway, a little country just north of Germany for you US-centric) because of price discrimination.

...and what made DVDs that different from other media? Don't they sell VHS movies in India? Actually, I'd live with it if the European versions usually hadn't been late, in a worse format, lack extras and on top of it are more expensive. When you force people to pay more *for a late and inferior product* you're begging for trouble.

I don't think MPAA get it. If I can stroll down to the shop and buy a DVD, in a good format, with all the extras the US version has, I'll probably do that. If I can't buy it, but I can get it on DivX (not screener, DVDrip, from a US DVD) or it's a horribly crippled version, I'll screw it and get the DivX. I can deal with living in a rich part of the world and be expected to pay more. But when I'm treated like a second-rate customer, I take offense. Of course I should probably simply not buy DVDs at all, write a letter to WTO and sulk. Uh huh. See you all in the line to get the LotR DVD.

Kjella