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In addition to the legal issues, which are very interesting, there should be a section on general criticism. Many criticisms have been voiced on this talk page without taking this appropriate step. The section could definitely be better developed, so I invite editors to contribute to it. 94.222.208.225 ( talk) 18:18, 30 December 2009 (UTC)
In the article it says "On Feb. 7, 2001, NASA sent two multiregion DVD players to the International Space Station.[26]" While true it's neither informative, illustrative or actually all that interesting. Unlike the former sentence "In March 2009, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown received a "wrong region" message on a screen when attempting to watch a DVD set of classic American movies received as a diplomatic gift from US President Barack Obama.[25]" which clearly illustrates a criticism. Why is the NASA sentence there? RamdomWolf 198.96.34.35 ( talk) 18:49, 8 April 2010 (UTC)
is it "part of France" and thus Region 2, or is it part of "South America" and thus in Region 4? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.87.125.229 ( talk) 03:40, 20 April 2010 (UTC)
All French overseas territories and regions, as well as all British overseas territories, non-European parts of the Kingdom of the Netherlands are in region 2, the same region as their respective nations main base. See here: http://www.aiseesoft.com/article/play-dvd-on-mac.html Could someone please change any discrepancies on the map as well to reflect this. --Lemonade100 16:50, 12 January 2012 (UTC)
The map shows it as region 2 (probably due to being French), while the article implies (being part of Oceania) that it's region 4.
Also for Blu-ray regions, New Caledonia is indicated as A in the map, shouldn't it be B? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.21.26.119 ( talk) 11:19, 23 April 2012 (UTC)
According to this PDF it's region 4, but I don't know how accurate that is -- it's just something I found in 20 seconds of googling. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.232.11.50 ( talk) 05:41, 29 December 2010 (UTC)
Hello,
Had to make several changes in the article, because of almost 10 errors spotted.
First of all it's not true that a country or territory can be in two regions at the same time. (In the same way that for example the state of Maine cannot belong to both USA and Canada at the same).
Also it's not true that european DVDs has been further coded for the countries they are intended used, making them impossible to play outside these countries. These codes are just internal codes used by Warner, and any DVD bought in UK will play OK in Norway, and vice versa no matter what D or Z lettering that are printed on the cover.
The only extra coding possible in addition to the regions, are the RCE system used on a few USA, Can and Jap discs to create problems for people buying discs outside their region.
It is staten that R0 disc are common in China and Phillipines. As far as I know they're common in all DVD producing countries of the world. At least 40% of my very international DVD collection is Region 0. All countries are richly represented.
The main thing causing confusing is the territories of USA, UK, Fra and Hol laying thousands of km away from the mainland in a different region. (All of them islands, except French Guyana). US territories are counted into R1, and french territories are counted as R2 'cos they're ruled from Paris with very limited independence. But what about UK and Hol territories? Some are goverened tighly from London and Amsterdam, while others, especially those laying in the Caribbean are almost ruling themselves as own countries. Not even bothering using their "motherland's" currency.
Also there are no such thing as SECAM DVDs. All SECAM countries (except Cuba) changed to PAL, when DVD was introduced. (SECAM was a video system made in France 1965). There is just two systems on DVD: NTSC and PAL.
Best regards
Stein S., Oslo, Norway
P.S. I come back and make further changes, when I have time. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.209.93.233 ( talk) 15:05, 19 January 2011 (UTC)
Hello,
Instead of looking at all these listings written off each other all over the internet. I went straight to the source itself, Hollywood. (They must know since they invented the system). Out of my ca. 90 DVDs bought from USA Hollywood companies, 23 is genuine R1 discs (found it out on my PC drive). And by reading on the backcover of these DVDs all of them "are inteded for use in USA, Canada and US territories". Not even 1 out of 23 mentions "Bermuda". That must count as some sort of proof.
By the way, why would they bother to take Bermuda in? It just don't make sense. It's a british colony getting the supplies from the "motherland".
Also, all regions maps on the internet shows not only Russia, Belarus and Ukraine as in Region 5. But in fact the entire Former Soviet Union. Meaning that also Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (the Baltic states) and Moldova are included too.
There's no such thing as SECAM DVDs. To prove this I suggest you go to Ebay, and search for russian or french DVDs. And no matter how many backcovers you maginfy it will always say PAL. (All countries that used SECAM videos (except Cuba), changed to PAL with the introduction of DVD).
Lastly Hong Kong does NOT use both R3 and R6. I've got ca. 60 HK DVDs at home and when examing them on my PC drive, ca. 40 has R3 and NON have R6 or R3+R6.
The article has a number of issues, that has to be sorted out.
Best regards
Stein S., Oslo —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.209.93.233 ( talk) 00:30, 3 February 2011 (UTC)
This article has no clear explanation on how this sistem was born, or about who created it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.12.84.169 ( talk) 21:30, 12 June 2011 (UTC)
The article has a fundamental problem. It does not separate between technical possibilities and the laws and licences. It is no problem to buy a player for any desired disc-format in any country (region) of the world and to buy the discs fit for exactly that player in the same country. The player does NOT register when it is moved to a different region (no "GPS-detection" of the locality or such features). Most players can have their region/region-code changed between one and ten times before they keep to it. Some players can play every disc/region and some (code-free) discs can be played on all players. The film industry has always wanted to make it worldwide unlawful to play a disc with a region code that does noct fit the place. It is currently (to my knowledge) not (directly) the case in any country (no law against the playing exists). The problem is the licence. Most discs come with a licence to play that does not allow the playing in countries not belonging to the region and some local laws (not all) declare those regulations valid and thus the playing in those countries is unlawful (other laws declare these regulations/restrictions in the licence unlawful). This (a little bit complicated) fact should be represented in the article. The sentence indicating, a disc can not be played (technically) in any country should be removed and be replaced with a sentence indicating "it can always be played in the appropriate player in any country worldwide - but it may be unlawful in countries not belonging to the region the disc was made for due to licence regulations". This applies to ALL types of discs whether blue ray or not. In some countries it is important to have a TV-set with the appropriate colour-system for the player and the disc (NTSC or SECAM players or discs have problems with a PAL-TV and vice versa). These problems do not depend on the region code itself but depend on the colour-system of the country the player (and the discs) were made for. -- PhChAK ( talk) 11:58, 22 August 2011 (UTC)
Do music CDs have region codes? -- Fladoodle ( talk) 02:19, 27 June 2012 (UTC)
I noticed that the regions are different between DVDs and blu-rays. Can blu-ray-players play DVDs from all regions? -- Oddeivind ( talk) 18:40, 19 July 2012 (UTC)
At this time, the article provides two stated purposes for DVD region coding.
While the coding does protect cinemas/box office sales with new releases, the coding restriction applies way beyond what is needed for this purpose. This purpose clearly does not apply to old movies that were released long ago. The purpose would also become moot as time passed. It is unlikely that two years or five years after the release of a film in either the European or the American market the film will receive a large theatrical release in the other region.
While region coding may generally provide some protection to copyright holders it doesn't do this very well. In legal terms, the restriction is not closely tailored to its purpose. For example, there is only one region code for all of Latin America, yet the countries all have their own copyright laws. Residents in one Latin American country would be able to view a code 4 film even if the copyright holder receives no royalties from DVDs sold in that nation. Many Latin American countries share common borders and trade among the nations is widespread, so that DVDs sold in a country that provides no royalties can be easily distributed to other countries.
Region 2 at once presents examples that tailor regional DVD protection to royalty protection and to examples where it absolutely doesn't. The former is the case for those countries in the European union. It is a big geographic area, with many countries that provide the same protection to copyright holder. However, not all European states are members of the European Union, particularly the states in Eastern Europe. However, Western China, Japan, South Africa, Egypt, Swaziland, Lesotho and Greenland are all part of this region. This clearly presents a situation where the holder of a copyright from one country is not protected from having that film viewed in a country that does not provide royalties.
I'm pretty sure I'm not the first person to point this out, and sources citing these criticisms should be abundant. Yet these are not mentioned either in this section or the criticism section.
Finally, the major downside to region coding and the reason why some countries are trying to limit region-coding is not the inconvenience of travelers. The major criticism of regional coding is that it is an anti-competitive practice. Regional coding inhibits price competition for both DVD players and DVDs themselves. This is also a detriment to those who view globalization as a positive goal. The criticism section makes it seem as if the harms of region coding are just the laws of couple of countries on competition and the inconvenience to travelers and ignores the elephant in the room - that the codes enable anti-competitive and anti-consumer practices generally. Ileanadu ( talk) 20:33, 3 January 2016 (UTC)
I thought the reason for coding was to prevent people from buying from overseas sources. A $20 dvd in India would have almost no customers. The dvds are so cheap to make that selling them for far less can still reap a good profit. The $20 price is for those who can pay more with an even better profit. The case is probably worth more than the dvd.
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In the "Regional codes and countries" section, Region 0 is "Any region/region-free", while Region ALL has all 1-8 flags set, allowing the disc to be played in any location, on any player. What, then, is the practical difference between Region 0 and Region ALL? 108.20.174.117 ( talk) 19:11, 13 May 2020 (UTC)
eg, a region wiht US/Can makes sense, as does a region with central/s america
but S Africa ? why is that with Europe ? and why is Australia and japan with Europe ? who decided what countries go where ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:197:D00:3CA0:4DCA:6263:9472:D05A ( talk) 13:53, 29 June 2024 (UTC)
This is the
talk page for discussing improvements to the
DVD region code article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
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This article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's
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In addition to the legal issues, which are very interesting, there should be a section on general criticism. Many criticisms have been voiced on this talk page without taking this appropriate step. The section could definitely be better developed, so I invite editors to contribute to it. 94.222.208.225 ( talk) 18:18, 30 December 2009 (UTC)
In the article it says "On Feb. 7, 2001, NASA sent two multiregion DVD players to the International Space Station.[26]" While true it's neither informative, illustrative or actually all that interesting. Unlike the former sentence "In March 2009, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown received a "wrong region" message on a screen when attempting to watch a DVD set of classic American movies received as a diplomatic gift from US President Barack Obama.[25]" which clearly illustrates a criticism. Why is the NASA sentence there? RamdomWolf 198.96.34.35 ( talk) 18:49, 8 April 2010 (UTC)
is it "part of France" and thus Region 2, or is it part of "South America" and thus in Region 4? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.87.125.229 ( talk) 03:40, 20 April 2010 (UTC)
All French overseas territories and regions, as well as all British overseas territories, non-European parts of the Kingdom of the Netherlands are in region 2, the same region as their respective nations main base. See here: http://www.aiseesoft.com/article/play-dvd-on-mac.html Could someone please change any discrepancies on the map as well to reflect this. --Lemonade100 16:50, 12 January 2012 (UTC)
The map shows it as region 2 (probably due to being French), while the article implies (being part of Oceania) that it's region 4.
Also for Blu-ray regions, New Caledonia is indicated as A in the map, shouldn't it be B? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.21.26.119 ( talk) 11:19, 23 April 2012 (UTC)
According to this PDF it's region 4, but I don't know how accurate that is -- it's just something I found in 20 seconds of googling. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.232.11.50 ( talk) 05:41, 29 December 2010 (UTC)
Hello,
Had to make several changes in the article, because of almost 10 errors spotted.
First of all it's not true that a country or territory can be in two regions at the same time. (In the same way that for example the state of Maine cannot belong to both USA and Canada at the same).
Also it's not true that european DVDs has been further coded for the countries they are intended used, making them impossible to play outside these countries. These codes are just internal codes used by Warner, and any DVD bought in UK will play OK in Norway, and vice versa no matter what D or Z lettering that are printed on the cover.
The only extra coding possible in addition to the regions, are the RCE system used on a few USA, Can and Jap discs to create problems for people buying discs outside their region.
It is staten that R0 disc are common in China and Phillipines. As far as I know they're common in all DVD producing countries of the world. At least 40% of my very international DVD collection is Region 0. All countries are richly represented.
The main thing causing confusing is the territories of USA, UK, Fra and Hol laying thousands of km away from the mainland in a different region. (All of them islands, except French Guyana). US territories are counted into R1, and french territories are counted as R2 'cos they're ruled from Paris with very limited independence. But what about UK and Hol territories? Some are goverened tighly from London and Amsterdam, while others, especially those laying in the Caribbean are almost ruling themselves as own countries. Not even bothering using their "motherland's" currency.
Also there are no such thing as SECAM DVDs. All SECAM countries (except Cuba) changed to PAL, when DVD was introduced. (SECAM was a video system made in France 1965). There is just two systems on DVD: NTSC and PAL.
Best regards
Stein S., Oslo, Norway
P.S. I come back and make further changes, when I have time. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.209.93.233 ( talk) 15:05, 19 January 2011 (UTC)
Hello,
Instead of looking at all these listings written off each other all over the internet. I went straight to the source itself, Hollywood. (They must know since they invented the system). Out of my ca. 90 DVDs bought from USA Hollywood companies, 23 is genuine R1 discs (found it out on my PC drive). And by reading on the backcover of these DVDs all of them "are inteded for use in USA, Canada and US territories". Not even 1 out of 23 mentions "Bermuda". That must count as some sort of proof.
By the way, why would they bother to take Bermuda in? It just don't make sense. It's a british colony getting the supplies from the "motherland".
Also, all regions maps on the internet shows not only Russia, Belarus and Ukraine as in Region 5. But in fact the entire Former Soviet Union. Meaning that also Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (the Baltic states) and Moldova are included too.
There's no such thing as SECAM DVDs. To prove this I suggest you go to Ebay, and search for russian or french DVDs. And no matter how many backcovers you maginfy it will always say PAL. (All countries that used SECAM videos (except Cuba), changed to PAL with the introduction of DVD).
Lastly Hong Kong does NOT use both R3 and R6. I've got ca. 60 HK DVDs at home and when examing them on my PC drive, ca. 40 has R3 and NON have R6 or R3+R6.
The article has a number of issues, that has to be sorted out.
Best regards
Stein S., Oslo —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.209.93.233 ( talk) 00:30, 3 February 2011 (UTC)
This article has no clear explanation on how this sistem was born, or about who created it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.12.84.169 ( talk) 21:30, 12 June 2011 (UTC)
The article has a fundamental problem. It does not separate between technical possibilities and the laws and licences. It is no problem to buy a player for any desired disc-format in any country (region) of the world and to buy the discs fit for exactly that player in the same country. The player does NOT register when it is moved to a different region (no "GPS-detection" of the locality or such features). Most players can have their region/region-code changed between one and ten times before they keep to it. Some players can play every disc/region and some (code-free) discs can be played on all players. The film industry has always wanted to make it worldwide unlawful to play a disc with a region code that does noct fit the place. It is currently (to my knowledge) not (directly) the case in any country (no law against the playing exists). The problem is the licence. Most discs come with a licence to play that does not allow the playing in countries not belonging to the region and some local laws (not all) declare those regulations valid and thus the playing in those countries is unlawful (other laws declare these regulations/restrictions in the licence unlawful). This (a little bit complicated) fact should be represented in the article. The sentence indicating, a disc can not be played (technically) in any country should be removed and be replaced with a sentence indicating "it can always be played in the appropriate player in any country worldwide - but it may be unlawful in countries not belonging to the region the disc was made for due to licence regulations". This applies to ALL types of discs whether blue ray or not. In some countries it is important to have a TV-set with the appropriate colour-system for the player and the disc (NTSC or SECAM players or discs have problems with a PAL-TV and vice versa). These problems do not depend on the region code itself but depend on the colour-system of the country the player (and the discs) were made for. -- PhChAK ( talk) 11:58, 22 August 2011 (UTC)
Do music CDs have region codes? -- Fladoodle ( talk) 02:19, 27 June 2012 (UTC)
I noticed that the regions are different between DVDs and blu-rays. Can blu-ray-players play DVDs from all regions? -- Oddeivind ( talk) 18:40, 19 July 2012 (UTC)
At this time, the article provides two stated purposes for DVD region coding.
While the coding does protect cinemas/box office sales with new releases, the coding restriction applies way beyond what is needed for this purpose. This purpose clearly does not apply to old movies that were released long ago. The purpose would also become moot as time passed. It is unlikely that two years or five years after the release of a film in either the European or the American market the film will receive a large theatrical release in the other region.
While region coding may generally provide some protection to copyright holders it doesn't do this very well. In legal terms, the restriction is not closely tailored to its purpose. For example, there is only one region code for all of Latin America, yet the countries all have their own copyright laws. Residents in one Latin American country would be able to view a code 4 film even if the copyright holder receives no royalties from DVDs sold in that nation. Many Latin American countries share common borders and trade among the nations is widespread, so that DVDs sold in a country that provides no royalties can be easily distributed to other countries.
Region 2 at once presents examples that tailor regional DVD protection to royalty protection and to examples where it absolutely doesn't. The former is the case for those countries in the European union. It is a big geographic area, with many countries that provide the same protection to copyright holder. However, not all European states are members of the European Union, particularly the states in Eastern Europe. However, Western China, Japan, South Africa, Egypt, Swaziland, Lesotho and Greenland are all part of this region. This clearly presents a situation where the holder of a copyright from one country is not protected from having that film viewed in a country that does not provide royalties.
I'm pretty sure I'm not the first person to point this out, and sources citing these criticisms should be abundant. Yet these are not mentioned either in this section or the criticism section.
Finally, the major downside to region coding and the reason why some countries are trying to limit region-coding is not the inconvenience of travelers. The major criticism of regional coding is that it is an anti-competitive practice. Regional coding inhibits price competition for both DVD players and DVDs themselves. This is also a detriment to those who view globalization as a positive goal. The criticism section makes it seem as if the harms of region coding are just the laws of couple of countries on competition and the inconvenience to travelers and ignores the elephant in the room - that the codes enable anti-competitive and anti-consumer practices generally. Ileanadu ( talk) 20:33, 3 January 2016 (UTC)
I thought the reason for coding was to prevent people from buying from overseas sources. A $20 dvd in India would have almost no customers. The dvds are so cheap to make that selling them for far less can still reap a good profit. The $20 price is for those who can pay more with an even better profit. The case is probably worth more than the dvd.
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In the "Regional codes and countries" section, Region 0 is "Any region/region-free", while Region ALL has all 1-8 flags set, allowing the disc to be played in any location, on any player. What, then, is the practical difference between Region 0 and Region ALL? 108.20.174.117 ( talk) 19:11, 13 May 2020 (UTC)
eg, a region wiht US/Can makes sense, as does a region with central/s america
but S Africa ? why is that with Europe ? and why is Australia and japan with Europe ? who decided what countries go where ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:197:D00:3CA0:4DCA:6263:9472:D05A ( talk) 13:53, 29 June 2024 (UTC)