NationStates Jolt Archive

Does anyone know if under EU law DVD region coding could be legally challenged? It seems clearly designed to maintain price differentials.

Considering I have to make an effort to find a dvdplayer that is not regionfree in shops I never bothered to find out;)

Link (http://www.ipjustice.org/eucd012903.shtml)

A Norwegian Court was not so generous to the major Hollywood studios in its ruling[36] of January 7, 2003, acquitting Jon Johansen of all charges for his role in creating DeCSS.[37] At Hollywood’s request[38] Johansen had been charged under Norwegian Criminal Code Section 145.2, which outlaws bypassing digital locks to steal data one is not entitled to access. In the past, this law was used to punish those who broke into another’s property, like bank or phone records. The studios were hoping for a legal ruling in Norway that would criminalize accessing one’s own DVD on a competing player. Rejecting the prosecutions legal arguments, the unanimous Norwegian Court stated, "someone who buys a DVD film that has been legally produced has legal access to the film."[39] Currently residing outside the jurisdiction of national anti-circumvention laws, Johansen can build and use his own free DVD playing software without having to purchase a costly and restrictive DVD player from the DVD-CCA cartel. However, US and EU citizens who use or publish the DeCSS code, or try to build their own homemade DVD players face liability under circumvention laws, since its illegal to bypass the controls on your own property in the US and EU now.

And that is why all the pirating and construed-as-pirating sites are moving to the Nordic states. They arn't uptight asshats that will cave into powerful and deep-pocketed lobbies.

Link (http://www.ipjustice.org/eucd012903.shtml)

A Norwegian Court was not so generous to the major Hollywood studios in its ruling[36] of January 7, 2003, acquitting Jon Johansen of all charges for his role in creating DeCSS.[37] At Hollywood’s request[38] Johansen had been charged under Norwegian Criminal Code Section 145.2, which outlaws bypassing digital locks to steal data one is not entitled to access. In the past, this law was used to punish those who broke into another’s property, like bank or phone records. The studios were hoping for a legal ruling in Norway that would criminalize accessing one’s own DVD on a competing player. Rejecting the prosecutions legal arguments, the unanimous Norwegian Court stated, "someone who buys a DVD film that has been legally produced has legal access to the film."[39] Currently residing outside the jurisdiction of national anti-circumvention laws, Johansen can build and use his own free DVD playing software without having to purchase a costly and restrictive DVD player from the DVD-CCA cartel. However, US and EU citizens who use or publish the DeCSS code, or try to build their own homemade DVD players face liability under circumvention laws, since its illegal to bypass the controls on your own property in the US and EU now.

How on earth can such anti-free trade laws be supported by the US and EU? I fail to see how anyone has the right to say I cannot build a dvd player?

it is most annoying and a pain in the rectum.
I bought a DVD, Lion of the Desert, it's about the Abysinians and Ities fighting each other, it's got 3 big movie stars of the past and guess what, i can't watch it, why because its Region coded for Europe.:|
Don't ask me why it was sold in NZ.:@

How on earth can such anti-free trade laws be supported by the US and EU? I fail to see how anyone has the right to say I cannot build a dvd player?
The people who make DVD players and pay 6 figure salaries to lawyers whose job is to go to Washington and wine and dine your Congressmen until they do whatever the lobbyists' bosses want. Which they do. They could give a fuck less about you, their constituents, except on high-coverage issues like military spending or moral bullshit that they need to get their noses out of.

Note: They need to fix military spending, but anyone who suggests cutting it back and properly fixing it gets voted out of office and probably charged with treason.

The people who make DVD players and pay 6 figure salaries to lawyers whose job is to go to Washington and wine and dine your Congressmen until they do whatever the lobbyists' bosses want. Which they do. They could give a fuck less about you, their constituents, except on high-coverage issues like military spending or moral bullshit that they need to get their noses out of.

Note: They need to fix military spending, but anyone who suggests cutting it back and properly fixing it gets voted out of office and probably charged with treason.

Yeah but......... ah but........... no but.......... yeah, s'pose so :(

:mad: If it's not illegal, it should be... I'm required by the law to buy two different DVD players if I want to view the DVDs I got as X-mas present from my American friend... >_>

And all the PC DVD player/burners have only 5 changes of DVD region allowed. Good thing you can download the BIOS for these things and re-flash them.

all DVD players i've seen owned by friends or family have been multi-region players whether they've said so on the box or not. mine is and it cost 25 quid. you just have to press a short series of buttons on the remote then select the region and it'll play any DVD you like.

having said that i do think region coding is wrong and it is retarded that DVD player manufacturers must hide the fact that their players are multi-region for fear of litigation. or at least i assume that is why the series of buttons to push was not published in the instruction manual, nor was it's multi-region capablities mentioned on the box or manual. i think we found it on the internet after a tip-off.

And all the PC DVD player/burners have only 5 changes of DVD region allowed. Good thing you can download the BIOS for these things and re-flash them.

What really annoyed me was that I bought a dvd cleaning disk which was supposedly any region but my damned pc refused to accept it.

What really annoyed me was that I bought a dvd cleaning disk which was supposedly any region but my damned pc refused to accept it.

That's weird ... DVD cleaner with a region? :confused:

Originally there were 7 regions - 0-6, now there are 9
Region 7: Reserved
Region 8: International venues (airplanes, cruise ships, etc.)

So, don't get region 8 DVDs :p

My desktop has a Liteon DVD burner and yes it has the usual 5 region changes.
I found a little EXE file on the web site written by Liteon to hack and change the DVD region at will, making the protection useless.

it is most annoying and a pain in the rectum.
I bought a DVD, Lion of the Desert, it's about the Abysinians and Ities fighting each other, it's got 3 big movie stars of the past and guess what, i can't watch it, why because its Region coded for Europe.:|


Videolan is friend.

That's weird ... DVD cleaner with a region? :confused:

Yeah :confused: I don't think it's a region issue.

Is your PC old? Did you buy the cleaner because the player was skipping a lot? The reader may need to be replaced.

Or it could be something else.

Yeah :confused: I don't think it's a region issue.

Is your PC old? Did you buy the cleaner because the player was skipping a lot? The reader may need to be replaced.

Or it could be something else.

I have replaced the DVD re-writer recently and will try again - but it did not seem to like it being region 0, and I had changed the region my dvd was set to a couple of times already.

As I said - DL Videolan. It is free, legal, and circumvents region requirements entirely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videolan

Yeah :confused: I don't think it's a region issue.

Is your PC old? Did you buy the cleaner because the player was skipping a lot? The reader may need to be replaced.

Or it could be something else.

I had Samsung burner but it could not read DVD-RAM so I replaced with a Liteon. Region 0 is supposed to be readable universally. My Liteon hack too gives me the option of 1-8 ...

My PC is only 2 years old so your DVD drive could just be worn out.

Link (http://www.ipjustice.org/eucd012903.shtml)

A Norwegian Court was not so generous to the major Hollywood studios in its ruling[36] of January 7, 2003, acquitting Jon Johansen of all charges for his role in creating DeCSS.[37] At Hollywood’s request[38] Johansen had been charged under Norwegian Criminal Code Section 145.2, which outlaws bypassing digital locks to steal data one is not entitled to access. In the past, this law was used to punish those who broke into another’s property, like bank or phone records. The studios were hoping for a legal ruling in Norway that would criminalize accessing one’s own DVD on a competing player. Rejecting the prosecutions legal arguments, the unanimous Norwegian Court stated, "someone who buys a DVD film that has been legally produced has legal access to the film."[39] Currently residing outside the jurisdiction of national anti-circumvention laws, Johansen can build and use his own free DVD playing software without having to purchase a costly and restrictive DVD player from the DVD-CCA cartel. However, US and EU citizens who use or publish the DeCSS code, or try to build their own homemade DVD players face liability under circumvention laws, since its illegal to bypass the controls on your own property in the US and EU now.

Well, Norway just moved up on the list of foreign countries I'd move to if I couldn't live in the States anymore. It has proven to not be run by corporatist assholes.

What is the use? Region coding? The hell?

When I unplugged a lot of stuff in my computer because of power issues after I installed a new graphics card, my cd/dvd player stopped working for dvd's. After trying a few things, I got a codec pack from the internet and everything worked fine. Your problem could be related to the codec, the cheap thing that they come with can actually limit what they can do.

Just remember that it's only illegal if you get caught. :p

What is the use? Region coding? The hell?

The same reason a lot of games of serial numbers now. It gives the guys in charge a warm fuzzy feeling that theyre DOING SOMETHING TO FIGHT PIRACY, and pisses off everybody except the pirates.