I think the ACCC know that any challenge to zone protection will fail. In a similar issue in Australia the ACCC made it legal for retailers to directly import music CD's. THere is an oligopily in OZ for music companies. The prices are inflated. It is illegal for price collusion. To bring an end to stiffled competition it was made legal to obtain CD's from another source. The music companies responded by making the local product just that bit different from their overseas product so that they are 'technically' different. That is, they put multimedia tracks on most music CD's. The ACCC's change meant that you can only import if there was an identical and not 'similar' product overseas'. Because the music CD's now sold are similar and not identical it is still illegal to import the foreign product.
The zone protection on DVD just happens to stiffle competition and selection choice. Again, the distributors in OZ have an oligopily with restricted selection. I had to order Star Trek DVD's from the US because they weren't available here until only 1 month ago. Zone protection is a joke. The main reason it was implementated was to stop consumers seeing a movie in a zone before it was released to the movie theartres. Gee, if I obtained a Zone 1 movie before it was released to the cinema's in OZ, I would have paid 3 to 4 times the amount than if I waited for it to come to cinema. They get their money. Zone protection is about protecting local distributors and their oligopolies with which the ACCC quite rightly says inhibits free competition.
Slashdot Mirror
I think the ACCC know that any challenge to zone protection will fail. In a similar issue in Australia the ACCC made it legal for retailers to directly import music CD's. THere is an oligopily in OZ for music companies. The prices are inflated. It is illegal for price collusion. To bring an end to stiffled competition it was made legal to obtain CD's from another source. The music companies responded by making the local product just that bit different from their overseas product so that they are 'technically' different. That is, they put multimedia tracks on most music CD's. The ACCC's change meant that you can only import if there was an identical and not 'similar' product overseas'. Because the music CD's now sold are similar and not identical it is still illegal to import the foreign product. The zone protection on DVD just happens to stiffle competition and selection choice. Again, the distributors in OZ have an oligopily with restricted selection. I had to order Star Trek DVD's from the US because they weren't available here until only 1 month ago. Zone protection is a joke. The main reason it was implementated was to stop consumers seeing a movie in a zone before it was released to the movie theartres. Gee, if I obtained a Zone 1 movie before it was released to the cinema's in OZ, I would have paid 3 to 4 times the amount than if I waited for it to come to cinema. They get their money. Zone protection is about protecting local distributors and their oligopolies with which the ACCC quite rightly says inhibits free competition.