Abolish Region-codes, increase profits? Decrease piracy?

[ukb008]

Hi.

Region-coding of DVDs may help keep DVD prices artificially high, not to mention other possibly unfair restrictions. So if there were no region-codes, won't the DVDs become cheaper > sell more > genetrate more profits > decrease piracy ? Everyone will buy a marginally-higher priced original article rather than a possibly inferior pirated copy, isn't it?

What do you think?

[theReal]

I guess so - why would someone copy a DVD when they can buy the original for less than 10 Dollars/Euros? But that's not what the industry thinks. The big bosses and their managers have studied marketing and finance at expensive universities, so they must know better... ;) :rolleyes:

[Doom9]

I guess a large part of potential DVD buyers look to have the movie in their language (I could use my entire swearword vocabulary to describe how I feel about dubbed movies, so I won't get into it), so you can't just shop anywhere. Take German for instance: those discs are sold in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and perhaps you'll find German in some other releases sold in neighboring countries. In addition, regionfree players are a common reality, at least throughout Europe, meaning that whoever wants to get a release from any place in the world, can do so.

Those that do not require a dubbed version often(?) know about regionfree players.. even the large "by the boatload" chains have people who know what regionfree is and can explain that to clueless customers.

So I'm not sure a lot would actually change. It would mostly make life easier for those that shop abroad. And it's not only about region codes.. in certain countries it is illegal to commercially import discs from other countries.. region code or not. That is a measure, instigated by local distributors, so that they can make more money.

Price is only one of the drivers behind region codes. Market division is another. You have local licensors, and in order to honor those agreements, studios need to make sure that the licensor's market is not flooded by parallel imports. And then there's laws like in France where a movie must not be available in retail earlier than 9 months from its theatrical release in France. That means that you cannot even sell the Region2 discs with French audio track available in Belgium or Switzerland in France until those 9 months have passed. So region codes are only one piece in the entire "block free trade" mosaic that is the movie industry.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Yep... like I've said many times before. It makes more sense to flood the buying market with cheap original goods rather than cheap pirated goods ;)

[Arachnotron]

I guess a large part of potential DVD buyers look to have the movie in their language (I could use my entire swearword vocabulary to describe how I feel about dubbed movies, so I won't get into it), so you can't just shop anywhere. Take German for instance: those discs are sold in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and perhaps you'll find German in some other releases sold in neighboring countries. In addition, regionfree players are a common reality, at least throughout Europe, meaning that whoever wants to get a release from any place in the world, can do so. That is also a good reason to abolish region codes: there is no point to it.
For example, the Dutch, German and UK DVD's are all region 2 but are completely different. So the market is already segmented, and segmented even further than by the region codes.
Also, there are sometimes are different distributors for the UK, Netherlands and Germany, so the regions do not protect distributors either.

Since the region codes do not match the actual language divisions, and the rights are sold several times withing one region anyway, what is the point to them?

My guess is that originally the studio's had visions of having one release of a film with all languages on it and created the region codes for that. But with DTS, you cannot have more than a few languages on a DVD so in practice, it never worked. And now they are stuck with it; having bullied the hardware manufacturers into implementing it (remember the RPC1/RPC2 war for PC DVD-rom?) they cannot come out and admit that it all was a horrible mistake anyway.....

[theReal]

For example, the Dutch, German and UK DVD's are all region 2 but are completely different.That's why they sell some DVDs in Germany with forced German subtitles on the English language track (so the DVD won't be re-imported to the UK)
This pisses off a lot of people like me who like to watch movies in their original language (well, at least as long as it's English :) ).
These kind of DVDs force me to rip the movie with DVDDecrypter and remove the PUO's...

[Arachnotron]

That's why they sell some DVDs in Germany with forced German subtitles on the English language track (so the DVD won't be re-imported to the UK)
This pisses off a lot of people like me who like to watch movies in their original language (well, at least as long as it's English ). Same here in the Netherlands. I just returned a CSI DVD set because the subtitles were fixed and ordered the US version instead. I could also order the UK version, but the dollar is so low compared to the Euro the US version is cheaper.

[mpucoder]

The original reason for the region codes was to prevent viewing movies in one region before its theatrical release lease had expired. Movies are not released simultaneously to all world markets, and the studios thought this would prevent people in Europe and other areas from viewing a DVD intended for U.S. buyers before it even hit the big screens there. It has nothing to do with language, and it is even an admission by the studios that a lot of Europeans are multilingual.

But, of course, the flaw in that was that Europe is not bound by U.S. law, and so region-free players are legal in Europe. Combine that with dual standard (PAL and NTSC) and Europeans can watch any DVD from anywhere, while those in the U.S. are stuck with R1 NTSC (on settops).

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by Arachnotron
Same here in the Netherlands. I just returned a CSI DVD set because the subtitles were fixed and ordered the US version instead. I could also order the UK version, but the dollar is so low compared to the Euro the US version is cheaper. You would think "TV to DVD" series such as this would be authored with multiple audio and subtitle tracks, to accommodate as many European countries/markets as possible.... Indeed I have some early "movie" DVD's that had up to six audio language tracks and some with twelve or so subtitle tracks!

Personally, I don't have any grievances about "regional coding" - for the same reasons Doom9 mentioned earlier. But I would not support any attempts by governments or industry bodies preventing individuals from privately importing and playing DVD's from outside their designated region.


Cheers

[Arachnotron]

The original reason for the region codes was to prevent viewing movies in one region before its theatrical release lease had expired. Movies are not released simultaneously to all world markets, and the studios thought this would prevent people in Europe and other areas from viewing a DVD intended for U.S. buyers before it even hit the big screens there. It has nothing to do with language, and it is even an admission by the studios that a lot of Europeans are multilingual.OK, that makes sense. But if that is the reason, why are old movies that are only now being released on DVD also subject to region encoding? If the above is the reason, all DVD's except from the ones of movies currently running in cinema's should be region free.

Another twist to this: what happens when former soviet union countries (region 5) join the European Union (region2). You could argue region coding represents a trade barrier and should therefore be illegal within the EU :D

[ukb008]

Region Coding has been termed a bad mistake that sane people are required by law to defend. The fallouts include:

1. Unskippable Ads
2. Price Fixing
3. Market Segmentation
4. Release Delays
5. No Fair Use

So what (http://www.lemuria.org/DeCSS/paranoia.html) is going on?

Greed, most obviously. Every point above boils down to more money for the big movie corporations. You can't skip the ads, so they're worth much more than those on, say, VHS tapes. You can't import DVDs, so you can be charged whatever the local distributor wants to charge you. You can't make backup copies, so you'll have to buy another DVD if the old one breaks.
But there's also a non-money side to this: Control. The CSS issue has made it very clear that DVD CCA and MPAA will not tolerate DVD player software that is not subject to the terms of the CSS license. In other words: That they have no control over.
More paranoid speculations suspect that the movie corporations want to put us all on a rent basis, where we can not buy a movie once and watch it as often as we want anymore, but will have to pay for every time we see the movie. DivX was a first (failed) attempt, but most of the requirements of a rent system are present in DVD technology. It's lacking only a subscriber system. Should not be difficult to add...

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by Arachnotron
Another twist to this: what happens when former soviet union countries (region 5) join the European Union (region2). You could argue region coding represents a trade barrier and should therefore be illegal within the EU :D That's a darn good question. Does anybody know the DVD region codes for the new EU countries?

That said, does anybody know how how Israel gets perform in the Euro-vision Song Contest :confused:


Cheers

[Doom9]

music and movies tend to be overpriced in the UK, especially when compared to the rest of the world.

The original reason for the region codes was to prevent viewing movies in one region before its theatrical release lease had expired. Movies are not released simultaneously to all world markets, and the studios thought this would prevent people in Europe and other areas from viewing a DVD intended for U.S. buyers before it even hit the big screens there. I completely forgot about that. Translated for us Euros that speak English that means "screw you Europeans, you get to see what we want and when we want". They argue with distribution for the delay of certain movies, but that's a bunch of crap. There are many movies that are released pretty much simultaneously around the world, and in many countries you only get subbed, not dubbed movies in the theater, and subtitling doesn't really take long. Since it takes a while from the final cut to produce enough copies and get them distributed for a release, that would be more than sufficient to get the subtitling done. Of course, if there's an exclusive premiere at one theater and the final cut is made hours before the movie premieres, that's a bit different, but that would be a select start, and once the film is ready to premiere country-wide, enough time would have elapsed to get subtitles done for a non English speaking audience.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by Doom9
music and movies tend to be overpriced in the UK, especially when compared to the rest of the world. Yes it's not a nice feeling to know we are being ripped off here in the UK.

Most of it, in the form of some kind of taxation :angry:


Cheers

[Arachnotron]

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
That said, does anybody know how how Israel gets perform in the Euro-vision Song ContestIt seems that to be able to participate, you have to be a member of the EBU. Israel is the only non-European member that bothered to enter, but there are more EBU members outise of Europe.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by Arachnotron
It seems that to be able to participate, you have to be a member of the EBU. Israel is the only non-European member that bothered to enter, but there are more EBU members outise of Europe. The European Broadcasting Union...

I wonder how come non European countries can become "active members" of this also... Maybe the USA and Australia should sign-up too?

What a con!


Cheers

[cypher_soundz]

I buy all my DVD’s from Canada or america, (dvdsoon.com or amazon or ebay mainly) I get some before they even go to theatre here.
it works out at either the same price or a little less, plus I get them very quickly. i must say that most DVD players have region free codes and most people know about them. The only thing I can think of for a reason, is to keep the US economy higher ;) as lots of countries will by from the US before they are available in Europe etc.
Regards
cyph

[Joe Fenton]

Originally posted by Doom9
Translated for us Euros that speak English that means "screw you Europeans, you get to see what we want and when we want". They argue with distribution for the delay of certain movies, but that's a bunch of crap. There are many movies that are released pretty much simultaneously around the world, and in many countries you only get subbed, not dubbed movies in the theater, and subtitling doesn't really take long. Since it takes a while from the final cut to produce enough copies and get them distributed for a release, that would be more than sufficient to get the subtitling done. Of course, if there's an exclusive premiere at one theater and the final cut is made hours before the movie premieres, that's a bit different, but that would be a select start, and once the film is ready to premiere country-wide, enough time would have elapsed to get subtitles done for a non English speaking audience.

What I noticed recently with movies expected to be blockbusters (Star Wars, Harry Potter, et. al.), they really do release them simultaneously. In fact, they go so far as to have theaters on one side of the world open in the middle of the night so that the people on the other side can't make camera bootlegs available before it shows everywhere. It's kinda weird going to a sold-out movie at 3am. :D

[Mug Funky]

abolishing region codes wont really affect piracy in the larger world (i can't speak for north america).

in australia, region coding was deemed anticompetitive by our regulatory commission (the ACCC - Australian Competition and Consumer Commission... a body with unfortunately not enough power). same deal with mod-chips on playstation/ps2 - you can get your ps2 chipped at markets here for a pretty good price, and region-free DVD players are the norm.

also, DVDs on sale are often not strictly region-coded. for instance, where i work a DVD is region 0 unless the client asks for something different - usually the american clients. so what you get here is about 20% region 0, maybe 10% regions 4 and 2, and the rest region 4. a lot of locally produced stuff will be region 0 unless it is affiliated with the major studios. you can even buy region 1, 2 or 3 anime at most computer markets.

of course, the flip-side of no region coding is there's a lot of dodgy DVDs out there, and if you know where to look you can buy them. they are really not worth it, quality wise... but lots of people don't care about quality and think they're getting bargain deals with these coasters.

Originally posted by Doom9:
I could use my entire swearword vocabulary to describe how I feel about dubbed movies, so I won't get into it

hehe... same. but most of the market out there actually don't like watching subtitled stuff. subbed-but-not-dubbed DVDs sell notoriously badly. people even pay extra for those stupid 5.1 english dubs that ADV are releasing (just FYI, the rear channels almost never have anything on them, and when they do it's usually just reverb. these mixes are basically stereo). who needs to watch Azumanga in 5.1 english with those horrible voice actors? but then, it seems the general public prefer the dubs. one exception is "Kommissar Rex", the Austrian cop show with a dog as the star - this is actually SBS TV's highest rating show. it's subbed, not dubbed.

[ukb008]

The mighty movie corporations are american. Their products are in demands all over the world. So I suppose it's up to them and them only to sell their products in any way they wish. It's a monopoly as far as the rest of the world is concerned. Hollywood movies enjoy an enviable worldwide market. The other large mass producers are, I suppose, Hong Kong and the Indian Cinema Industry, but they don't have the whole world as their backyard.

So the american movie industry will continue to call the shots. You buy it on their terms or you stay put.

As Doom9 has succintly put it: Translated for us Euros that speak English that means "screw you Europeans, you get to see what we want and when we want".

So this thread was just a theoretical and wishful discussion. Unless the non-american world can match Hollywood in movie production and demand generation, this will remain in the hands of Uncle Sam to do whatever he feels like doing in his backyard.

Regards.

[dragongodz]

of course, the flip-side of no region coding is there's a lot of dodgy DVDs out there, and if you know where to look you can buy them.
there are a few companies that release older films very cheap aswell. the down side to these are often no subs(or maybe a foreign one but no english), no extras(maybe an original trailer of the movie but not much else) and cheap looking slicks(look like they were printed on a cheap pc printer).
up side is that they are anywhere from half to as much as a quarter of the price of new release/blockbuster dvds.
people have been saying dropping prices will decrease copyright infringement(please lets call it what it is) and while these cheaper releases may not be great most are better(i assume) than what people would be downloading. the problem is there are no real numbers that can say if these things have an effect or not. DONT believe numbers put out by the movies studios.

but most of the market out there actually don't like watching subtitled stuff.
well i can understand my 6 year old not really being interested in watching AstroBoy in Japanese with subs cant you ? ;)
the people who did Love Hina should be questioned under extreme duress over the dubb they did and the ridiculous accents they chose though.
i notice Madmans sampler dvds are dubs only aswell. :D

[ukb008]

This (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=93569) is a post by Wilbert (moderator) that is relevant and sane.

Regards.

[Doom9]

Unless the non-american world can match Hollywood in movie production and demand generation, this will remain in the hands of Uncle Sam to do whatever he feels like doing in his backyard.Then what do you say about all the non American movies that are released with region codes? It is up to every production/release company to use or not use region codes (and encryption for that matter). True, it's Hollywood that coerced the consumer electronics industry into mandating CSS and region codes on every player.. but if there's none of that on a disc, the point gets pretty moot.

[Wilbert]

This is a post by Wilbert (moderator) that is relevant and sane.
Uhm, you could at least have read the rest of the thread.

It doesn't necessarily mean that DeCSS is legal, or CSS illegal, but it probably means that Macrovision is illegal.

edit: I guess (but now i'm guessing again :)) this means that no one can use the EUCD (the European Copyright Directive - assuming France already implemented it) to prevent you from making an analogue copy, since the preventing measures themselves are illegal.

[Mug Funky]

Unless the non-american world can match Hollywood in movie production and demand generation, this will remain in the hands of Uncle Sam to do whatever he feels like doing in his backyard.

don't be so sure about that...

eastern movies are becoming extremely popular in the west, and european movies are getting much more distribution in english speaking countries (especially PAL land, for obvious reasons). the list of titles gets bigger every month, and seems to be growing exponentially. people are simply bored of those brainless american films. also, as the US gets more patriotic, it alienates the international audience more and more. we just can't relate to a lot of the US stuff that gets released internationally (U-571 was a bloody joke! there were no americans in that story in real life, and the real heroes were the code-breakers in england).

with that crap spewing out of hollywood, people are turning elsewhere. want an action movie? try hong-kong, thailand (Ong Bak is awesome, even after Luc Besson got at it) or japan. want fun? try bollywood. want artsy with a fair bit of raunch? try france. want pure wank? try dogma films. then there's the Russian and middle eastern stuff which is always interesting (Russian Ark - 90 minute movie shot all in 1 scene in 1 take! no cuts! that's an unrivalled achievement in movie making). plus loads of documentaries coming out all the time.

there are alternatives out there, and for the most part they're better than what hollywood is cynically trying to feed us. the only place hollywood wins is on technical grounds - their 5.1 audio tracks will always be at the correct levels, they'll be well mixed and sync up properly with the video. also, the telecine job will be nicer and the colour grading will be prettier. put simply, the budget will be higher. these aren't things people look for in their films though.

i haven't bought a hollywood DVD in ages. the only ones i'd consider getting would be Donnie Darko and Napoleon Dynamite (Donnie i can just borrow from work :))

i notice Madmans sampler dvds are dubs only aswell.

really? maybe some of them. i guess it's a matter of what's available at the time - the ones i've watched have jap + subs, but Geneon have recently got into the habit of only giving us English on the masters (there's 4 audio channels on a digibeta - usually it's eng 1+2, and jap 3+4 on a tape, but the geneon tapes have had digital silence on 3+4 lately). we're left to our own devices to get the japanese audio a lot of the time. i wish they wouldn't do that.

preview discs are a pretty low priority though :) if things are running tight, they will naturally be sacrificed for the greater good.

[dragongodz]

there does seems to be a slow turning against this sort of thing in countries other than the U.S., for example 99.9% of dvd players sold here are region free(0.1% for ones that they either forgot to unlock or old stock or whatever). also the government have talked about introducing a fair use type law where it would be legal to make a personal backup of a dvd(wait and see on that though).

want an action movie? try hong-kong
very true. i have noticed the local video stores martial arts sections are growing pretty rapidly. also we have things like older jackie chan and jet li films being released now, their hong kong films that is. not to mention things like lone wolf and cub etc from eastern eye which is an asian movies branch/department/whatever of some little company. ;) :D

really? maybe some of them.
on the last 2 samplers i think some of the previews had japanese but the full episodes i am pretty sure were dubs only. unless they had subs for the 1 or 2 episodes i wasnt interested in watching. ;)

preview discs are a pretty low priority though
of course. they still serve their purpose somewhat though.

[ukb008]

Quote from Doom9, commenting on Hollywood having a clout in the worldwide film industry:

Then what do you say about all the non American movies that are released with region codes?

Well, yes. But I suppose Hollywood still leads by way of monetary involvement (production costs or revenues generated). I feel Hollywood films may lead in film exports worlwide, but I don't have have any hard data on that. And there seems to be a feeling going round that America is to be imitated. So non-American staff tend to possess American flavor in some way or the other. This, of course, is not only comic, but also sometimes nauseating.

Quote from Mug Funky, talking on non-American films edging towards a close match for Hollywood:

Want an action movie? try hong-kong and also Ong Bak is awesome, even after Luc Besson got at it.

Action in Hong Kong movies is fast and furious, no question about that, but is often doled out at overdoses. Hollywood unquestionably has storytelling polish and professionalism, one has to (grudgingly) admit. But, I suppose the rest of the world is fast catching up on that.

...Your comment about Ong Bak is interesting. At the risk of perhaps digressing a little from the focus, may I ask what's Ong Bak?

Regards.

[dragongodz]

Action in Hong Kong movies is fast and furious, no question about that, but is often doled out at overdoses. Hollywood unquestionably has storytelling polish and professionalism, one has to (grudgingly) admit. But, I suppose the rest of the world is fast catching up on that.
sorry but i have to disagree. thankfully we have a tv station(SBS) here that only shows foreign movies and tv shows. some of the complexity/style/whatever of stories from other countries is every bit as good as any hollywood flick. of course there is bad ones just as their are plenty of crap hollywood ones aswell. lets also not forget hollywood has remade foreign movies in the past,actually they still do, so why do you think that is ?

Your comment about Ong Bak is interesting. At the risk of perhaps digressing a little from the focus, may I ask what's Ong Bak?
a Thai movie. the action is meant to be incredible in it and the couple of clips/previews i have seen look good. the story is meant to be a bit on the light side however.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368909/

[niamh]

Ong Bak rocks!!!! absolute total unalduterated fun.This is what all blockbusters should be like. ukb008, we don't have the same notion of overdose (Die Hard #54 would be my notion of overdose for example, with all the meaningless gunslaughter that comes with all those ridiculous movies and their unending sequels)

:deleted:

EDIT: and here I went and got the thread mixed up with the worst movie one :rolleyes:
Tabbed browsing can be a real inconvenience sometimes

[johnhamler1]

in my country in Europe but not in the CEE, shops even print out the code to unlock DVD players, so when you buy, you can pick up a form and unlock ur system at home.It sounds they sell more DVD at a point that a movie costs now around 12$ when in the past it was 2-3x more.

with the new EU constitution coming soon(depends of the french, keep tuned the 29th may!!!), based on "liberalism" many of these rules will disapear. We are free to buy where we want, movies, clothes, food, music, magazin.
It is illegal to install a regional coding in Europe!.yes, EU law is now in contradiction, in the texts it says "free market, free exchange" , then they say it is "illegal" to crack codes!

anyway, all my DVD players are unlock....so I dont really care of regional codings.

[ukb008]

Yes, I can believe Australia can be every bit as good as America or even better, if only the Australian filmmakers had put their minds to filmmaking business more thoroughly. Look at Crockodile Dundee or Mad Max. Look at Peter Jackson. They're all unbelieveable.

Polish, yes, but Hollywood's main clout comes out of sheer size.

@ niamh:

I've downloaded a quicktime trailer of Ong Bak. Looks exciting, but in Thai, not my strong point. Did Luc Besson remake the film?

@ johnhamler:

Yes, funny, isn't it? Why should copying two digits (0 and 1) create so much furore? Are the DVDs selling more because the price is less? That's the point. Henry Ford had made the automobile cheaper by inventing the assembly line, and the rest is history. Really Free markets is probably an idealistic concept; perhaps many parts of the globe aren't ready for the kind of responsibility associated with such a situation. For one thing, I suppose that needs a saner economic balance among the different regions of the world.

Regards

[shevegen]

Ong Bak, as far as the action scenes go, is nice. The guy is quite skilled. But to be honest - the story is complete cra*... it would have been better to just show the action sequences and cut the rest out heh ;)
Future movies with a better story and this guy might be interesting.
Ok, enough off topic from me. :P

If I'd rule the world, I'd not allow monopolies dictating the market.
(I'd not even allow monopolies ;> ) So a simple ruling would be to ban the silly region code. The movie makers should be happy that they can sell their silly products and drown in their money. But to continually piss off consumers, well, ...that pisses me off sorta



johnhamler, where did you get the info about the "EU constitution" changing the mentioned laws to the consumer's advantage? Or did I misinterpret you.

[niamh]

@ukb008 : Luc Besson is executive producer.
Yes, it's in thai, but the clever people who released it made subtitles for it :p

@shevegen : it's a blockbuster/teenager movie, and as blockbuster type movies go, it's refreshing (very)

[Mug Funky]

niamh: almost. Luc Besson basically owns the international rights to the film. i suppose he could be called "executive producer" or something, but it amounts to some small edits (6 mins cut out from original Thai version) and a new music score (euro-techno i think, though i haven't actually heard it in spite of encoding it several times). he had absolutely nothing to do with the production of the film.

the thai version is 107 mins, the "international" version 101 mins.

the region 4 DVD that comes out in a couple of months will have both versions on one disc, and extras on the other... i'll stop now because i don't intend to advertise unless i get paid for it :)

[dragongodz]

Are the DVDs selling more because the price is less? That's the point.
have they lost any money from our dvd players being region free aswell ? who knows ? all we know is the movie industry, especially the MPAA and relevant branches, say they loseing more money all the time for practically anything and everything even when their profits go up.

[cypher_soundz]

its all about estimated sales, if we take all piracy / different region sales out the equation and are just left with predicted/estimated sales Vs Actual sales, they will still be wrong in there calculations. but there is that scape goat of Region / piracy and its all speculation as there will never be no import/export / piracy.
thats IMHO any way.
Regards
cyph

edit: spelling

[ukb008]

I don't think so.

You can buy 8 computers with DVD drives and set them each to one region. Then you can play any disc any time. This is independent of your location in the world.

Point is, why would you have to use eight computers when only one should suffice?

Regards.

[mpucoder]

Why use 8 computers? btw, there are only 7 regions. But you know a computer can have more than one drive?

[ukb008]

That's for the Airlines, cruise ships...

But, yes, 3 DVD-drives per computer, and you're safe with only 3 computers.

Regards.

[dragongodz]

ts all about estimated sales
very true and a big joke. they dont get the pulled from a crystal ball estimated sales and they are losing X amount of dollars to copyright infringement(i refuse to call it piracy and i wish others would too).

but there is that scape goat of Region / piracy and its all speculation as there will never be no import/export / piracy.
(sarcasm mode on)yep, lets also ignore competition from other smaller distributers releasing cheaper older or foreign films vying for our dollar aswell as that wouldnt impact sales of the majors would it ?(sarcasm mode off)
the sarcasm was not aimed at you cypher_soundz by the way but the mindset of the industry. ;)

some solid and reliable numbers of how much was actually spent that included things such as imports and smaller ditributers etc would show pretty healthy dvd sales i am betting. pity that we will probably never see reliable figures like that though.

EDIT:
But, yes, 3 DVD-drives per computer, and you're safe with only 3 computers.
or 1 with a region free drive or one that can be changed infinatly such as my hitachi dvd-rom, dont even have to flash or reboot just run a util to switch it as many times as i like. :)

[ukb008]

I don't know if it'll be illegal just to ask the model number of your Hitachi DVD-ROM drive and the name and location of the software that your using. So I'm not asking.

Regards.

[dragongodz]

I don't know if it'll be illegal just to ask the model number of your Hitachi DVD-ROM drive
thats not illegal. its a GD-7500 but the util is meant to work with many other models, both earlier and later, aswell. so the util was from some time ago and would probably be a bit harder to find nowdays.

i dont even have to use it to watch any dvds though since 99% of dvd players here are region free anyway. the point was you dont have to own multiple pcs as there are always other options, such as region free firmwares etc.

[ukb008]

Oh, no no no. I spoke about multiple PCs not as a solution to the DVD-Region issue. That's absurd. I said it just to illustrate the point that Region Coding isn't anything to do with copy protection or piracy. That'll be CSS. The only connexion between CSS and Region Codes is that a DVD inserted into the DVD-ROM provides a CSS Key to the DVD-ROM drive/OS and the wrong region will produce a mismatch, activating the content scrambling.

Because this Region Coding of DVDs isn't a legal requirement (it's only a licensing agreement between the DVD manufacturers and the CSS developer company), the Region-Free softwares aren't illegal.

Region Coding is absurd because it serves no useful purpose for the consumer, and is as ridiculous as telling the customer to buy several PCs to view his DVDs.

Regards.