The EUCD, EU enlargement and DVD region codes
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On May 1st 2004, the three Baltic countries, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, will join the European Union (EU). These countries, as former USSR republics, belong to DVD region 4, while all the other members in 2004 will belong to DVD region 2.
From the very beginning, the EU has been about the creation of a single market and the removal of internal barriers against the circulation of people, goods, services, and capital.
So if a good is legally in the EU, it is free to move anywhere within the EU without any restriction.
What will happen with DVDs? Manufacturers of DVD players are supposed to sell their products only in the area covered by the applicable region code. The same goes for the disks themselves.
Thus manufacturers will try to prevent the free circulation of goods (DVD and players) between the Baltic countries and the other members, because these countries are in another DVD region.
Isn't that likely to render the DVD region coding scheme simply illegal under the EU internal market rules, since it amounts to voluntary fragmentation of EU markets? And if so, won't the circumvention of the region code, illegal under the EUCD, be authorised because the region coding itself would be illegal?
Slashdot Mirror
From the very beginning, the EU has been about the creation of a single market and the removal of internal barriers against the circulation of people, goods, services, and capital. So if a good is legally in the EU, it is free to move anywhere within the EU without any restriction.
What will happen with DVDs? Manufacturers of DVD players are supposed to sell their products only in the area covered by the applicable region code. The same goes for the disks themselves. Thus manufacturers will try to prevent the free circulation of goods (DVD and players) between the Baltic countries and the other members, because these countries are in another DVD region.
Isn't that likely to render the DVD region coding scheme simply illegal under the EU internal market rules, since it amounts to voluntary fragmentation of EU markets? And if so, won't the circumvention of the region code, illegal under the EUCD, be authorised because the region coding itself would be illegal?