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.