Region coding of console games now illegal in Au. :-)

Post #48,295 by static 8/6/02 12:00:56 AM Reply	Region coding of console games now illegal in Au. :-) From "The Law Report" on [link\|http://www.abc.net.au/rn/\|Radio National]: [link\|http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/lawrpt/stories/s639926.htm\|The world of Pirates, Playstations and Mod chips]. Brief precis: Sony Computer Entertainment took to court a small business man who made his living out of reparing and "modding" PlayStations, claiming copyright violations. The [link\|http://www.accc.gov.au/\|ACCC] stepped in as a Friend Of The Court to argue that defeating the region coding was not illegal. The court agreed. A section that hasn't been transcribed details how Sony tried to argue that chipping defeated the anti-copying technology. They said that chipping the machine to play any game from any region meant the console was making a copy of the game in-memory to play it. Thus defeating the region coding was making an illegal copy. The ACCC argued back that such a copy was too transient to be considered a copy, citing an earlier court case (to do with computer software, IIRC) which ruled exactly that way. The judge agreed. This is what the ACCC spokesman meant by saying "In the Australian context, it\ufffds been found that regional coding issues are not a technological protection measure, as defined in the Copyright Act, and so it does really get down to an issue of statutory construction." towards the end of the published transcript. Wade. "Ah. One of the difficult questions."
Post #48,515 by tuberculosis 8/7/02 4:22:46 AM Reply	Sweet! Since I'm in Europe with a stack of US DVD's this is annoying in the extreme. Effectively what region coding has done is keep me from acquiring and DVD's in Europe. Since I have two identical laptops I'll probably convert one to Europe code but if I can find a tech means of working around this I'll use it. Fuckers. I am out of the country for the duration of the Bush administration. Please leave a message and I'll get back to you when democracy returns.
Post #48,571 by tonytib 8/7/02 4:45:55 PM Reply	Try doing some research IIRC, the Hello Kitty site (jlist.com) discusses region coding, and sells region-free stand-alone DVD players. Furthermore, IIRC, there was a hack for Mac's allowing unlimited switching between regions, but my memory might be wrong. In any case, I recommend checking out if there is any region-free DVD playback software. Another possibility is to de-CSS it. Some people like to de-CSS, convert to MPEG4 (so most movies are now < 650 MB) and store it on CD-ROM or HDD. This works well with a large HDD. And, yes, this whole region coding thing is a big scam by the movie companies. Another reason I think they're some of the most unethical companies around (along with music companies and many software companies). Good luck, Tony
Post #48,627 by orion 8/7/02 10:30:50 PM Reply	Big scam and how! Imagine if you are from another country and you move to the US and want to play DVDs, Games, etc from your country in your own native language? Oops, can't because they are region blocked! It is not that you made a pirated copy of the DVD or game, you bought a legit copy in another country (for cheaper than the US version, natually!) but are blocked from using it on a US player. Way to go Australia! Now if we can just convince the US Court System to see things this way... Anyway it is one big scam, a lot of the Japanese versions of the games have different levels in them, and some different graphics that the US version lacks. Also some games are Japanese only with no US conversions. I am all for antipiracy, but I don't think that people should be prevented from using legit copies from another region. That in my opinion, blocking regions, is the real skullduggery here! *[link\|http://games.speakeasy.net/data/files/khan.jpg\|"Kahn!!!" -Kirk]*
Post #48,668 by CRConrad 8/8/02 10:06:27 AM Reply	And how, yeah - but not THAT way! Orion wibbles away: It is not that you made a pirated copy of the DVD or game, you bought a legit copy in another country (for cheaper than the US version, natually!) but are blocked from using it on a US player Yeah, right -- cheaper than the US version, "natually"... You really don't know what you're talking about, do you? "The big scam", since you apparently don't know, is that the rest of the world gets to pay a heckovalot more than the USA. *[link\|http://games.speakeasy.net/data/files/khan.jpg\|"Kahn!!!" -Kirk]* BTW, it's "Khan", not "Kahn". Christian R. Conrad Microsoft is a true reflection of Bill Gates' personality - the sleaziest, most unethical, ugliest little rat's ass the world has seen unto this time. -- [link\|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=42971\|Andrew Grygus]
Post #48,677 by orion 8/8/02 11:04:13 AM Reply	Corrections My visit to Thailand in 2000 showed me that they sold DVDs over there cheaper than they do over in the US. Maybe in your neck of the woods they charge more? The typo has been corrected. One finger faster than the other one. *[link\|http://games.speakeasy.net/data/files/khan.jpg\|"Khan!!!" -Kirk]*
Post #48,684 by CRConrad 8/8/02 11:19:36 AM Reply	I think the difference is... ...that the DVDs you saw in Thailand were pirated ones -- illegal copies pressed locally, without paying anything to the copyright holders. What I'm talking about is the "official" price of the "real" stuff, the DVDs that the American media mega-corps sell in Europe (and, I guess, Thailand; although they probably don't sell a lot of 'em there, with competition from the pirates...) And thanks for correcting the spelling -- though in the mean time, I suggested an alternative interpretation elsewhere. :-) Christian R. Conrad Microsoft is a true reflection of Bill Gates' personality - the sleaziest, most unethical, ugliest little rat's ass the world has seen unto this time. -- [link\|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=42971\|Andrew Grygus]
Post #48,687 by orion 8/8/02 11:27:23 AM Reply	DVDs in Thailand from a retail store, holograms on them, original shrink wrapped package, plastic box with original print on it, about 75% the price of the US Version. Pirated DVDs sold in flea markets, about 10% the price of US Versions, no holograms, no shrinkwrapped package, photocopied box cover in plastic sleve, and DVD with computer print in blocky format. You can tell the difference. I suppose it has to do with the value of the Thai Baht being lower than the US Dollar or something? Either that or the retail stores had a better quality pirated DVD that looks like and has all the feautres of the original DVD? If so, damn good job! *[link\|http://games.speakeasy.net/data/files/khan.jpg\|"Khan!!!" -Kirk]*
Post #48,863 by tuberculosis 8/9/02 6:21:05 PM Reply	Prices of DVDs My guess is that the average Thai makes less than the average US or European. So they price them affordably so people can buy them. Heck why not. They've already made back the investment in the US. Everything else is gravy. Besides, the disks only cost a buck a piece to burn in quantity. Seems sensible. I haven't priced DVD's here yet. I have noticed machines that look like ATMs but seem to be about renting DVDs. I gotta figure those out. I am out of the country for the duration of the Bush administration. Please leave a message and I'll get back to you when democracy returns.
Post #48,867 by orion 8/9/02 7:01:14 PM Reply	DVD Pricing I think you hit the nail on the head with that one. Economically the US and Europe workers earn more than the Thai workers so they can charge more for DVDs and other stuff. Your milage may vary based on the country you live in and its economy. *[link\|http://games.speakeasy.net/data/files/khan.jpg\|"Khan!!!" -Kirk]*
Post #48,636 by static 8/7/02 11:10:01 PM Reply	The ruling was not directly on DVDs. I haven't been in the aus.dvd newsgroup for a while, but I suspect the ACCC might be looking for a way to apply it to DVD region coding. A court ruling would be best, but that would require a court case. So I bet the local publishers and distributors are trying to think up ways to not attract the ACCC's attention over this in court. Then too, there have been rumours for many many months that the ACCC is thinking about investigating the movie houses over the region coding, with the intention of citing it as a Restriction of Trade and thus illegal under our Trade Practices Act. It would be interesting to see the ACCC effectively take on Hollywood... Wade. "Ah. One of the difficult questions."
Post #48,699 by Ashton 8/8/02 4:12:13 PM Reply	More interesting: anyone take on RIAA head-to-head, like a coop of artists intending to market their own material: one-at-a time mavericks will be swatted like flies. Unorganized: NOTHING gets done. Ah But.. that might sound too much like a Union.. Never mind. Ashton
Post #48,914 by static 8/10/02 3:55:39 AM Reply	Postscript: the MPAA is not impressed. Also from Radio National, but this time from [link\|http://www.abc.net.au/pm/\|PM]: [link\|http://www.abc.net.au/pm/s645007.htm\|Dawson Inquiry is the talk of Hollywood]. There isn't a transcript available, bit there's a WMP (ick) audio stream. Precis (I heard it broadcast yesterday): the MPAA is concerned that Australian Courts seem to be taking a view of technological copyright protection that is contrary to other major jurisdictions around the world. But the fact of the matter is that Alan Fels and the [link\|http://www.accc.gov.au/\|ACCC] simply will not be bought by commercial interests and deeply respect their duty to the Australian Consumer. Wade. "Ah. One of the difficult questions."
Post #49,042 by ben_tilly 8/12/02 6:42:54 AM Reply	Old tactic for multinationals Multinationals have several tactics for getting laws passed that play off of having multiple countries to ask for favours from. One of them is to get a friendly jurisdiction to pass laws that give them what they want, and then try to get it passed elsewhere for reasons of "harmonization". This is how the Sony-Bono act was passed in the US, and what they are trying to do with the DMCA elsewhere. Often what they try to get passed elsewhere will be even more generous than the original. (The Sony-Bono act would be an excellent example.) This is the international version of a kid going to one parent and saying what the other parent "said" the kid can do. A related trick is to try to get a treaty passed between countries with terms they would have trouble getting passed in either country, and to only pursue specific laws once they have that. Overuse of this tactic is why a lot of people dislike the WTO. I am sure that there are plenty of other variations... Cheers, Ben Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. -- Edsger Wybe Dijkstra (1930-2002)
Post #49,043 by static 8/12/02 7:11:59 AM Reply	It will be interesting to see them try. In this particular case, the law they would have to somehow get changed is the Trade Practices Act. Belying it's rather ordinary name, it is a quite well-respected and actually rather powerful law, IIRC. I think its core dates from 1936 and it has a rich history. OTOH, I try to have as few illusions as possible about how much power big multinationals can wield over governments. Wade. "Ah. One of the difficult questions."

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