Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
Not exactly. There is an official region code means that a DVD can play in all regions. Anything else is by definition Geo-restricted. At one time, you read about importers being raided, but for the most part now, no one bothers.
|
There are actually two different region free codes, one of which is unofficial but broadly supported. The reason the codes are being deprecated is because they are illegal in some countries and might be illegal globally.
Quote:
Region-code enforcement has been discussed as a possible violation of World Trade Organization free trade agreements or competition law.[14] The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has warned that DVD players that enforce region-coding may violate their Competition and Consumer Act 2010.[15][16][17] Under New Zealand copyright law, DVD region codes and the mechanisms in DVD players to enforce them have no legal protection.[18] The practice has also been criticized by the European Commission[19] which as of 2001 March 14 is investigating whether the resulting price discrimination amounts to a violation of EU competition law.[20]
|
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code
Quote:
As of 2007 many "multi-region" DVD players defeated regional lockout and RCE by automatically identifying and matching a disc's region code and/or allowing the user to manually select a particular region.[5][6] Some manufacturers of DVD players now freely supply information on how to disable regional lockout, and on some recent models, it appears to be disabled by default.
|
Buying out of region DVDs *today* is no different from buying a foreign edition book, CD, or LP. Which has long been perfectly acceptable.