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| | | Senior Forum Advisor
 
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Last Login: 11/16/2004 2:55 PM
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| The following is not a hypothetical situation; it's the truth. In October 2001, I emmigrated from the United Kingdom to New Zealand. Considering I had 26 years' worth of accumulated crap to sort through, I came over fairly light. A couple of suitcases, a huge kit bag, and a couple of large heavy boxes which came later by sea.
Having sold or generally disposed of most of my possessions before I left, I brought with me: personal effects, clothes, my books, my CD collection, a laptop computer and my DVD collection - about 40 titles.
A year later, during which I've settled down, bought furniture, etc., I settle down on the couch to watch an old movie. I insert the disk in the player, and press play. "Bugger!", says I, as on the screen I get a message saying "Wrong region code detected".
My UK-bought DVDs are all Region 2. New Zealand is in Region 4. Thanks to the actions of the Motion Picture Ass. of America and Hollywood studios, I cannot watch movies I bought in the UK in the country I've come to live in. These DVDs - about US$1000 worth - are now effectively little more than expensive shiny drinks coasters.
My question is, therefore, should I be entitled to copy the DVDs I've legally bought in one country (where I lived at the time), and bypass the region encoding simply so to use the disks for the purpose for which they were intended - home viewing? Should I be allowed to make backup copies of the DVDs I buy here in New Zealand in case the original gets damaged (I own a hyperactive kitten who eats everything from CAT5 cable to carrots)?
Obviously, I know the legalities - and quite frankly I don't care about them one bit - the question is a moral one. Should I be allowed or shouldn't I?
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Senior Forum Advisor
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| I suppose you're allowed to make a copy for personal use, but I don't know what the law is on making it region-free in the process. But then again... what if "that's how the copying program did it" and you "were not alerted about that"?
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Associate Member
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Last Login: 11/10/2005 5:38 PM
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| I think no matter where you live, as long as you're only making one copy for yourself to use, that would be fine.
John Paul.
John
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Associate Member
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| As long as you have the originals, I think it should be okay.
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Associate Member
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| well thats what i dont like about having different region discs and formats. all dvds should work the same.
if its ur copy and u paid for it, then i say by all means make copies for yourself. cause i know of one guy who buys dvds to collect. like collectors edition sand limited edition stuff. and he makes 2 of everything so he wont damage or scratch the originals.
but for u, its more of because u cant play ur region 2 dvds on a region 1 player. thats where i have to say do what u can to watch them. if its making copies of them by using software. then go for it.
i mean as long as ur not distributing copies of ur movies out to people then its fine.
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| region codes are for release dates, and to protect them, there are some situations where they wait to send a movie to a lawless location , lawless as far as american copyrights.
also they TIME advertizing to releace dates. very inconvienient when the whole country already has a copy.
also there are movies that are 'contraversial' and because of the PC america, they are not sold in the US. that might be true for other countries, like china.
the region code IS a form of copy prevention, but if its already releaced there, then it shouldnt matter.
and if its a 'contraversial' problem, then you werent supposed to have it THERE, so you cant sue them for whatever the contraversey is anyways :-)
so sure, you should be able to transfer them to a different region, then destroy the originals. that sounds moral enough.
but because it is likely that some people will sell the originals on e-bay ,or loan them to friends without thought of thier costs, it probably still isnt LEGAL.
legally speaking they were only designed for the region they were sold in, and should have been left there, its not their fault you moved :-)
you can change the region code on lots of in computer dvd units through firmware, but alegedly you can only do it so many TIMES, then it gets stuck or something.
then as far as your cat eating them, i dont think that is a good enough reason. ya see, the digital copyright laws are because digital data can be 1-1 reproduced endlessly.
if your not going to take care of it, then that is your fault.
if your dog ate your IPOD , you wouldnt get a free replacement
if your kids destroy your china , you wouldnt get a free repalcement
if the museum destroyed the original picasso they wouldnt get a free replacement
even if you screwed up the flash on your motherboard, itll cost you 25-29$ to fix it.
if you bought a expencive print of an artists, and you poured water on it, and 101 other examples of user destruction.
so like any other product, if you destroy it, you would have to buy a new one. the info and the disk are a product.
if the rental store rents it often enough, they buy another.
if it has so much value to the consumer (they got thier moneys worth) then they should be happy to not only buy another one, but support its creation. Mabey someday they will use the money to keep it alive by remastering it in HD with a quad layered double sided 150gig cd, complete with dolby 12.5
so as far as supporting products that break the law by breaking the digital copyright , i am against it.
on the other hand, i broke my NT4 disk :-( but MS will replace it
like usual you can spend all kinds of money and TIME making backups of everything (like your toaster :-) and 10 years from now its value is less than what the disc costs you.
hey anybody see my vinal record of the beatles :-)
when the only thing left in music is ghansta rap, and the only movies left are blair witch 17, you will wish you bought it 
OK, so i am Guessing, but i try hard  |
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New Member
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Last Login: 10/27/2004 4:07 PM
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| Sanx-
Have thought about buying a multisystem DVD player? They are a little more pricey, but the multisystem DVD player will play all regions. No worries about copyright laws.
Check this site out.
http://www.dvdoverseas.com/dvd.htm
ecotech |
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| | | Senior Forum Advisor
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Last Login: 11/16/2004 2:55 PM
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| @ecotech,
Oh - I already have a multi-region system, and my computers have been 'fixed' to allow multi-region playing as well.
I just enjoy posting up these moral dilemmas - should something that is not legal be allowed, or should the action be condemned purely because it breaks laws designed to address other actions.
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