BZZZT - Technical Error! (Or, hopefully, a typo nit-pick.)

Post #28,234 by CRConrad 2/13/02 10:40:04 AM Reply	BZZZT - Technical Error! (Or, hopefully, a typo nit-pick.) Wade (inadvertently?) Bow-mers down to the MPAA: Firstly, the act itself of region-locking the product is not that bad an idea. Oh yes it is! You bet your hairy little ass it's a bad idea! (If you're wondering why, study the emphasis [I added] in the quote above.) On a purely technical level, it enables modifications for local language and laws (e.g. UK Censorship) and licensed distribution for local distributors and copyright owners. And which of those couldn't be implemented, as you said in your headline, with Region Coding? Oh yes, quite a few, probably: Censorship, and presumably "licensed distribution" (if by that you mean the discriminatory and extortionary practices the MPAA and RIAA want to see made universal law). But who gives a shit? Censorship isn't worthy of any defense at all -- certainly not enough to warrant building it into devices for you(?) and me, who live in more enlightened places than the UK, at least. And the "licensed distribution" seems to work damn well already, with other media, such as books and (old-fashioned, genuine, standards-compliant) audio CDs: You sell the media to me, and the "license" to the content is thereby "distributed" to me. The only "technical" argument that stands up, of the ones you mention, is that "it enables modifications for local language". That'd be nice, so -- for instance -- my fiancée could watch a film with Swedish sub-titles, her son see it with Finnish ones, and I could see the same film without any at all; all on the same player. And for that to be possible (or convenient), we REALLY DON'T need any damn locking! On the contrary, that only deprives us of the potential benefits of "multi-regional" (for want of a better word) "media content". For typical DVD content, it also permits staggered releases to follow theatrical or television releases. And what's so great about staggered releases in the first place? What interest do I, as a consumer -- and thus the legislatures that we, us consumers, (ostensibly) elect (allegedly) to represent us -- have in some fat-cat media mogul on another continent being able to stop me from (or at least making it useless for me to) buying a DVD on a business trip to America and taking it home with me, just because the (over-priced) cinemas at home haven't got around to screening the movie yet? Am I somehow morally obligated to subsidise Hollywood moguls and/or European cinema chains? Moreover, Nintendo, Sega and Sony have been doing it for years with their games consoles. Yeah, and (for those who care -- I'm not a gamer, myself) THAT SUCKS, TOO! Is that somehow supposed to be a defense of the practice, just because some other group of extortionists is doing it (and, unfortunately, seems to be getting away with it), too? Christian R. Conrad Of course, who am I to point fingers? I'm in the "Information Technology" business, prima facia evidence that there's bats in the bell tower. -- [link\|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=27764\|Andrew Grygus]
Post #28,629 by static 2/16/02 6:25:07 AM Reply	Hot-button topic for you, Christian? Yes, okay, region-locking and region-coding are more than semantically different. Since in practice (with DVD), they function the same, most people don't make the distinctin. Regionally-coding for the purposes of censorship rules and other aspects of localisation stands as a good idea as I have stated. I will also stand by my comment that region-coding for correct copyright licensing is also worthwhile. The point I perhaps may have failed to make that without region-locking the DVD format would not have been given the support from the movie houses that it did. They did, in fact, tell the developers of the DVD format(s) pretty much exactly this. The stated reason of staggered releases was a compromise the studios failed to completely honour, as I said. And we got region-locking. Wade. "All around me are nothing but fakes Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
Post #28,792 by CRConrad 2/18/02 5:35:16 AM Reply	What, semantics? And here I assumed you meant... ...the $@!\ufffd@!!\ufffd* cansorship! :-) But you're wrong, of course: Since censorship itself is one of the most asinine ideas ever, nothing that supports it "stands as a good idea". Where the fuck did you get that idiotic idea from?!? Oh, and the fat-cat Hollywood moguls told the inventors of video tape all kinds of shit, too... And look how that came true. i.e, NOT! Making any compromises for the "support" of those sharks is idiotic, too. Christian R. Conrad Of course, who am I to point fingers? I'm in the "Information Technology" business, prima facia evidence that there's bats in the bell tower. -- [link\|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=27764\|Andrew Grygus]
Post #28,857 by Ashton 2/18/02 6:48:41 PM Reply	About that censorship ploy.. My take is that it is dangled out as a sop to The Farmily Valuez crowd: those who Know what You ought to be able to see - without pissing-off Gawd and stuff. (No! NOT that the purveyors imagine the 'censor chip' could / would actually achieve that goal of censoring Everyone's souces.. They just imply that, wink...nudge as a gleam in the eyes of the preyer-ful - for future use?) This way the bitch-slap, cop-eviscerating lyrics can still goose the faithful peer-pressure drones for $16US a pop WHILE the RIAA et al can seem to be er, tryin to clean this all up for the Righteous folk? Of course too, all the above is irrelevant - so long as the pandered stuff is as vacuous and boring as 500 empty channels of Tee Vee: far as I know, no one has found any answer to the net decline of quality of content. I don't think any chip can correct that one. Ashton who may have missed a few other ploys hidden within the claptrap that passes for "justifying censor chips"
Post #29,535 by static 2/24/02 12:50:42 AM Reply	This is bizarre... It seems to be twice in the one thread you've mistaken my intent. shakes head I didn't put forward one way or the other that censorship is a good idea. but it exists and it's existence must, unfortunately, be accomodated. Region coding is a way to do that; IMHO, quite a good way. Region locking is also a way of accomodating it's existence, albeit in a rather more draconian way. Video tape had the advantage of being recordable from the get-go. DVD, originating as a pre-recorded medium, needed the backing of the owners of desirable content. IIRC, pre-recorded VHS tapes were a bit of a novelty for many years - I know video rental stores have been around for ages, but large sections of videos for sale in department stores is much newer. I believe that if the DVD Consortium didn't get support from the movie houses, it would have all the market share of Laserdisc - i.e. not much. And just to make it totally clear: Once again, I also dislike region locking. I myself have a region-free DVD player and have several DVDs from outside Region 4. Wade. "All around me are nothing but fakes Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
Post #29,644 by CRConrad 2/25/02 1:06:52 PM Reply	Yes, it's bizarre how you can persist in being so wrong: Wade staticates: It seems to be twice in the one thread you've mistaken my intent. shakes head I hoped so, too... But, alas, it was not to be -- you really are saying what I thought you were. I didn't put forward one way or the other that censorship is a good idea. but it exists and it's existence must, unfortunately, be accomodated. No. That's like saying, "Evil exists, and therefore must be pandered to". Would you sign off on that?!? Funny, I'd have thought you'd say Evil has to be fought, not have its comfort ensured as best you can. (Or is it that you don't quite know what a-commod-ated means, really? If so, look it up!) No, censorship exists -- but it must NOT be acommodated. "No compromise with the Shadow; not on MY watch!" Christian R. Conrad Of course, who am I to point fingers? I'm in the "Information Technology" business, prima facia evidence that there's bats in the bell tower. -- [link\|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=27764\|Andrew Grygus]
Post #29,729 by static 2/26/02 6:18:34 AM Reply	That's "statictate". And it wasn't really a statictation; it wasn't long enough. We clearly have different views on how and why censorship should or should not work. So be it. Wade. "All around me are nothing but fakes Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
Post #29,733 by CRConrad 2/26/02 7:07:22 AM Reply	Yup, saw that. I spelled "cansorship" further up-thread, too Hey, I can only plead (early) senility. Or maybe I was drunk -- Yeah, that's it! I was too drunk to spell correctly! That's my story, and I'm sticking to it... Almost with the vehemence of a Post-It^[TM] note.
Post #29,850 by Ashton 2/26/02 3:02:17 PM Reply	OTOH a statictite is a growth that can't quite make up its mind whether to grow from the floor or hang from the ceiling.. sorta a stoned stone?
Post #29,943 by static 2/27/02 5:37:02 AM Reply	Hmm. I wonder if a little history is called for... Back a few years ago when I began having LAN parties/Net days with friends, we naturally came up with some aliases for things like Quake. That's where "static" for my alias came from, BTW. An interesting typo in an email with our aliases led to inventing terms based on our alises for typical things we would do. We came up with quite a few between us, but most never got used. One that did stick around was "statictate". Essentiually it means getting a long, generally correct answer in reply to a simple question that was probably not what the asker expected or desired. Amongst our little group, I tended to do a lot more than everyone else. Here on IWETHEY, other people statictate more than I do. :-) We never came up with "statictite". :-) Wade. "All around me are nothing but fakes Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"

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