Regional Coding Enhancement

My wife bought some DVDs recently via Amazon’s UK site. They are unavailable in the UK so she bought them through one of Amazon’s affiliates. When we tried to play them, we were puzzled to see a warning that the region code was incompatible with our machine. After all, our machine is a multi region device. Since the BBC sold the rights to the Monty Python series, for example, region 1 discs are all you can get. If you want to collect them, then this is the only option available.

The studios, however, think differently. They want to control who watches their product and where. In the case of a new release, I can understand why they might want to exercise some control over timing – after all, they want to maximise cinema takings. However, as my wife and I have no intention of watching films in a cinema, this control over our viewing is pointless and irritating. The Court Jester is long past this anyway. We like Danny Kaye and wanted a copy of this film. Perfectly reasonable, you might think. That’s why we have a multi region player – so that we can collect such films. Not according to the studios, though. Not satisfied with the iniquitous region coding arrangements, they have cranked up their spiteful behaviour and seek to punish their customers by introducing another layer of regional coding: Regional Coding Enhancement. This, we discovered the hard way…

A memo sent out by the offending studios underlines their arrogant and spiteful attitude:

WHV will start a program to enhance the capabilities of the regional code specification for DVD beginning in October. This program is a response to the unauthorized practice of altering DVD video hardware players so that they bypass the region code requirements for DVD. This is happening on a more frequent basis in many territories, and retailers are openly marketing these non-complying players with names such as “region free” and “multi zone”.

The reason that the hardware manufacturers produce region free or multi region products is because they, like the consumer, realise that the region coding is nothing more than anti-consumer protectionism; a triumph of greed, control freakery and spite over the needs of the customer.

But one statement from Toshiba Digital Media Networks’ Hisashi Yamada was particularly intriguing: “We’ve gotten a variety of opinions about region controls. Even in the Steering Committee, they are extremely unpopular; we decided to not put them in. HD DVD probably won’t contain any region playback controls.”

Having bought a DVD and paid good money for it, the buyer should be free to watch it wherever or whenever he wants on whatever machine he chooses – it is not up to the studio to control this. It is, frankly, none of their business once they have accepted the customer’s money. To attempt to do so is highly unethical. The studios take a distinctly imperial view over their product and the consumer that is totally out of touch with the rest of the world (not least the WTO free trade agreements).

Hollywood has long had a flair for the dramatic — and the imperial. Burger tells of a public hearing held in Washington that illustrates the culture gap between Hollywood and high tech. “One studio executive got up and said, ‘People pay for the privilege of watching movies.’ Could you imagine a computer executive saying, ‘People pay for the privilege of using one of our machines’? He’d be slaughtered. There’s sometimes a regal attitude in Hollywood.”

Also, that rampant paranoia; that malaise so oft touted by the entertainment industry; piracy, is much overstated and does not, as they would like us to believe lead to senior executives putting their children in the poor house any more than home taping killed music. It is hyperbole. Yes, piracy occurs and I deplore it. However, whatever means engaged upon by the industry to stop it will simply lead to another arms race involving more hacks to overcome the current copy protection in use. All they can hope to do is minimise it. This is not helped by alienating genuine consumers and pushing them into the open arms of Messrs Hackem and Teach.

Region coding will not contribute to the battle against piracy. Indeed, region coding creates a backlash that involves the honest consumer engaging in activity that they would not otherwise contemplate in order to access a product that they have paid for.

In the face of the studios’ arrogant attitude, a part of me wants to boycott them completely. However, that would be spiting myself to make a point.

I can recommend The Court Jester. It’s an excellent film.