Topic: DVD Region laws

[Jaminxz]

I hope somebody can help as i'm a lttle hazy on the region laws.

So the world is separated into regions(8 ithink?), and this is to maximise profits for film makers, e.g british people can't watch american dvd's as they come out before they do in britain.

I think this is right?? if so is it legal to buy region free dvd players??

[Sandra]

I think that its 6 regions, definately there is no legitimate reason for them to do this other than to maximise their profits and rip the UK consumers off, as with so many things.
The DVD producers claim that its for ease of distribution and because films are released in different countries on different dates, this again makes no sense either apart from to maximise their profits at our expense.
Its not illegal, as far as I know, to buy a multi region capable player, (in fact youd be daft not to do so if you live in the UK, as DVDs are often much cheaper and available earlier as region 1 from the USA), or to "hack" the DVD player from the hidden menu that most, but not all have, via the remote control unit.
I understand that this doesnt even invalidate the manufacturers warranty, whereas it would do so if you had to "chip it" like some earlier models required to make them multi region  

[Simon]

Sandra ia correct.  It's not illegal to own and use a multi-region DVD player in the UK.  It's also not illegal to import DVDs into the UK from other countries, but it is illegal to sell them, which is why any UK retailers selling Region 1 (US) DVDs in this country, either ship from abroad, or claim to be merely an agent importing the goods for you.

Region 1 - The U.S., U.S. territories and Canada

Region 2 - Europe, Japan, the Middle East, Egypt, South Africa, Greenland

Region 3 - Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong

Region 4 - Mexico, South America, Central America, Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Caribbean

Region 5 - Russia (okay, former Russia), Eastern Europe, India, most of Africa, North Korea, Mongolia

Region 6 - China

Regions 7 & 8 are reserved for other purposes.

Be aware that if you import goods exceeding the value of £18 (including / excluding shipping costs is a bit of a grey area), you are likely to incur UK customs charges and VAT, so keep your orders down to one DVD per order, unless you can get exceptionally cheap ones.

[Dack]

As someone who's written multiregion software for DVD players I may be able to give an insight into this

There are 8 regions - the 6 geographical and then another 2  - region 7 = Reserved and 8 for ship and aircraft/international use.

The problem manufacturers of players have is that they have to include the regional coding to be compliant with the dvd specifications - the fact that companies such as Sony also produce films and so have a vested interest in maintaining the regional locks could go some of the way to explaining why that was included in the spec.

The main excuse film producers give for justifying regional coding is that they can release a film in the USA and then use the figures to judge how many copies of the film to produce for theatres in the rest of the world. This means if a film bombs in the USA they can simply clean up/reuse the prints they used for USA cinemas and so save money.

Multiregion players are completely legal - in fact the region locking is almost certainly illegal for the manufacturers to implement as it's a restraint of trade. Unfortunately it needs a complaint from a countrys government to be raised to the World Trade Organisation before anything would happen (and then it would be years down the line).

HOWEVER

Two of the other bit's included in the DVD specification were for CSS (Content Scrambling System) and the implementation of Macrovision copy protection on a disc - though this is set on by a bit in the DVD's IFO file and only if licensed by the producer of the disc, a famous case of not being set was in the UK release of the first Harry Potter film (apparently they worked out the amount they were likely to lose to piracy and decided it ws going to be less than the costs of licensing macrovision )

Macrovision is a particular pain if you have a projector though as they don't tend to handle it very well and you end up with a messed up picture (light/dark, rolling etc.)

It is illegal to defeat these due to laws passed protecting the copyright of the material on the disc. CSS stops direct disc to disc copying while macrovision prevents DVD to tape copying. (There is also a third protection related to digital copy that gets put into the analog signal which stops DVD recorders from copying digatal sourced material e.g. from another DVD player)

In summary:
Player Region locking - legal to break as it's not affecting the copyright on the material - you can therefore legally buy multiregion players

Macrovision - illegal to break as it's there to protect the copyright holders material from illegal copying - some player suppliers also include a 'VCR' or 'Projector' mode though that circumvents it.

BTW it's worth buying DVDs from Australia as they tend to be region 2+4, PAL format, cheaper than UK release and also occasionaly have releases more in tune with USA release. Can recommend EZYDVD.COM.AU, DEVOTED.COM.AU - remember the prices are in Australian dollars though (as the prices look very high otherwise )

[Simon]

Yes, I've had some good bargains from EzyDVD.  In fact, they are sometimes better than the UK versions, because they are often uncut, whereas UK versions may not be.

I have Schindler's List winging it's way over from Oz as we speak.  I would have bought the Region 1, but the R1 version is a flipper!    By shipping it from Oz, I am getting a 2 disc version, and I save £5 on the UK price.

[Jaminxz]

so how is dvd 'backing up' legal??

[Simon]

It isn't.  Full stop.    Unless, of course, it's a home movie, or you are Warner Bros and own the copyrights.  Confusing isn't it!  

[Adept]

Backing up the DVD isn't illegal in itself, breaking the encryption on the CD is