Blockbuster Chief: End DVD Region Codes

Xesdeeni writes "Blockbuster's President/COO Nigel Travis has called for the elimination of the DVD region code. At issue is the situation when a movie is released in one country several months before it is released in another. He points out that pirates 'can drive a cart and horses through these holes in the release schedule.'"

Comments

Yarrrrr, Matey!

[Anonymous Coward]

"He points out that pirates 'can drive a cart and horses through these "

What sort of landlubbin pirates be these?

A real pirate sails the high seas on a fine pirate ship. I'd keel haul these donkey driving pirates, then make them walk the plank!

Re:is there anyone out there...

[Steve B]

Especially take into consideration military families who move from place to place, DVD regioning is bad for all

Well, there you have it -- region coding is an unpatriotic scheme cooked up by people who are on the side of the terrorists!

Re:They lost sales to me because of region codes..

[stwrtpj]

My wife, who had no idea what region codes were, started picking up a few DVDs that are not available in the US. (A couple of them were Eddie Izzard as I recall) She was very disappointed when I told her that these DVDs would not play in the DVD palayers at home without hacking them.

Hey, don't let that stop her. It didn't stop my wife.

My wife is nuts for the band Roxette, but they don't distribute their music in the States anymore because of how the recording industry in the US screwed them over. So when she heard Roxette was releasing new music videos on DVD, she asked me if she would be able to play European DVDs on our player, and I had to explain to her about the region coding.

One week later, we had a brand new DVD player, region free, auto-detecting PAL/NTSC, fresh from Ebay, and her coveted Roxette DVD a week later.

Re:is there anyone out there...

[niko9]

What the hell is wrong with you? All you had to do is tell him your a bona fide Slashdot alumni.

Then that stuffy looking Hi-Fi salesman would have riped off his button down shirt and tie and revealed his cape and BSD insignia lycra tights.

He would have then led you to the revolving fireplace-secret entrance, that leads to the basement where where all the Christman elves work fastidiously on multi-zone DVD playes of all types. That run Linux! That have big stickers that say "No way in hell even remoteley do these players have anythig to do with Microsoft!"

Or maybe he would have just said "Slash-who?" /joke/

--

You mean, you mean, you mean...

[rknop]

...copy protection only hurts and inconveniences legitimate users, but not the pirates? Who would've thought!

(Sheesh.)

-Rob

Re:Preach it brother

[gfxguy]

If Disney has it's way, not only won't region codes be removed, but if you try to play a disc in a player for a different region, it'll self destruct.

Re:Has anyone come across a region 8 dvd?

[fuzzybunny]

Guantanamo Bay. There are actually only two physical Region 8 DVDs in existence; they're a copy of "Gigli" which is shown to "enemy combatants" to break down their willpower, and one of "Ishtar", which they get to watch as a reward for spilling the beans.

Re:Preach it brother

[Erbo]

They will not rent out NC-17 movies [...]

Which is why I usually refer to the company as "BustBlocker."

Re:Preach it brother

[Orne]

If Disney had its way, at the end of every DVD, the Player would connect to the internet and dump you in a gift shop.