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LuYu: Are Region Codes Racist?
posted by mpawlo on Monday December 15, @12:47PM
from the reader's-opinion dept.
Copyright LuYu writes "Region codes are one of the most awful things about DVDs. I have waisted no small amount of breath on expletives trying to express my frustration at the existence of such a system.

But why has this system irked me so? What inherent injustice in its nature drives me to contemplate going back to video tape when the quality of DVDs is so superior? Could it be that DVDs are just a tool for racial segregation?

In a recent post to this /. article, I asked just this question:

The practice of restricting people by region is racist. Regionalizing is saying that because you live in such and such a country, you will pay such and such a price or watch movies in such and such a language. Because you live in such and such a country, you will know such information. What is the difference between this and bathrooms marked Colored and White? I guess Jack Valenti is more of a good-'ol-boy than we thought.

As I think about it, the restricting of people to certain information is little different than restricting them to certain places. If the US is truly a beacon of freedom, how can something like this come from the US legal system?

Some examples: If one looks at a map of the regions, one might be struck by many racist decisions made by the DVD consortium. Weird things include:

  • South Korea and Taiwan are in Region3: Southeast Asia. This is even though South Korea is one of the northernmost countries in Asia and Taiwan is not independent from China yet not in the Chinese region (Region6).
  • Hong Kong is also in Region3: Southeast Asia, even though it was officially ceeded to China in 1997.
  • Japan is in Region2: Europe. Why is Japan in the European region? Is it because they had colonies? Or is it because they had a feudal system during first contact with Europe? Or is it because they behaved in as racist a manner as the Europeans in Shanghai?
  • South Africa is in Region2: Europe. It is interesting that Australia was put in Region4, but South Africa was put in Region2. Do the Europeans somehow like South Africa better than Australia?
  • Mexico is in Region4: South America. That might make sense from the standpoint of Latin languages (mainly Spanish and Portugese), but why then is Australia in that region? Australia has many more political ties with Asia and Europe, but it is restricted to a Spanish speaking region.
  • The Pacific islands and the Caribbean islands are in Region4: South America, too. These two cultures share little with mainland South America.
These are just some striking things about the region code map. The really disturbing part is thinking about these executives at the MPAA member companies sitting around deciding what we should know and what we should not, what we should think and what we should not, or even what we should like and what we should not.

Being able to speak languages from at least three of these regions, I would like to know why I am being segregated into choosing one. This segregation contributes to my ignorance and voids the purpose of copyright (which is to ensure the creation and dissemination of information for the purpose of accelerating progress). Is my position in the MPAA's global society decided by what language I speak, what race I am, or where I live? What if I do not agree?"

Secure and Trustworthy Voting | Seth Finkelstein on Censorware, Copyright and Blogs  >

 

 
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    LuYu: Are Region Codes Racist? | Login/Create an Account | Top | 11 comments | Search Discussion
    Threshold:
    The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
    You miss the entire point (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 15, @03:27PM (#1409)
    You're confusing nationalism with racism. Furthermore, region coding is designed to help publishers enforce regional distribution contracts and maintain control of their channels. It has nothing to do with The Man wanting to keep you down.
    Re:You miss the entire point (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 15, @09:17PM (#1411)
    Yes - I concur with this person. Different DVD players manufactured in different regions with different standards....it's all contracts. Now, if you could show Region 5 discs were denied equal pay and more frequently pulled over by the police, then you would have a claim. tom@houseoftom.com
    "price discrimination"?? (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 15, @03:33PM (#1410)

    "Region 2 - Europe, Japan, the Middle East, Egypt, South Africa, Greenland"

    Why is South Africa part of this region? I see no obvious geographical ties between South Africa, Japan, and Europe. Those three are on completely separate parts of the globe.

    What do they have in common that they don't have in common with the rest of Africa?

    What is the richest African nation (based on perhaps average currency adjusted income of citizens)? South Africa. What is the richest Asian nation? Japan.

    Maybe the real reason for region codes is price discrimination [ecoteacher.asn.au], to separate countries into areas based on their price elasticity of demand. Try and charge each country their marginal price.

    People in poorer countries are not willing to pay as much for a DVD, but a small profit can be made (because the marginal cost of production of a DVD is relatively small) by selling just aboe the marinal price of production. Richer countries can be sold products at much higher prices, and the profit margin is much higher. Cheaper imports of an otherwise identical product can from other countries can be blocked by region codes. The richer countries can be made to pay the marginal utility price (which is more profitable for the DVD manufacturers), and the poorer ones can pay prices closer to the marginal price of supply.

    I am quite uncertain about whether or not this is true, and would be interested in seeing some facts on either side. This is all just some theories proposed by a student who took 4 or 5 economics course options in university a few years ago. I really don't understand international trade (but I do know when I feel like I am getting ripped off).

    But either way, I am ticked that my European DVDs don't work on my North American DVD player. I paid for both, they should work. I am (was?) a paying customer, and my DVD does not work with my DVD player.

    Re:"price discrimination"?? (Score:1)
    by Arioch of Chaos on Tuesday December 16, @07:29AM (#1413)
    User #674 Info
    I think this is very close to the truth.

    By the way, here in Sweden most DVD players sold seem to be "region free". I know mine will play any DVD and I would not have bought it otherwise. How is the situation in the rest of the world?
    Re:"price discrimination"?? (Score:1)
    by LuYu on Wednesday December 17, @10:18AM (#1419)
    User #460 Info | http://grep.law.harvard.edu/

    People in poorer countries are not willing to pay as much for a DVD, but a small profit can be made (because the marginal cost of production of a DVD is relatively small) by selling just aboe the marinal price of production. Richer countries can be sold products at much higher prices, and the profit margin is much higher. Cheaper imports of an otherwise identical product can from other countries can be blocked by region codes. The richer countries can be made to pay the marginal utility price (which is more profitable for the DVD manufacturers), and the poorer ones can pay prices closer to the marginal price of supply.
    In other words, the manufacturers are creating artificial markets to extort more money from their customers since the "mar[g]inal price of production" is the same for every place.


    "Anyone who doesn't quote me is paraphrasing."
    particular regions (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 16, @04:00AM (#1412)

    I would suggest that the particular reason for certain countries being in different categories has more to do with things such as supply chain and distribution agreements, along with marketing preferences for content release and equivalence of markets (e.g. south africa being a modern european like market, in comparison to other less developed african markets).

    From a technical point of view I don't really like region encoding either. That's why we purchased a region-free DVD player. Perhaps you too can vote with your feet and do the same. If everyone does this, then region-locked players will lose market share, and manufacturers will respond and offer region-free players in increasing quantities. This will eventually break the system down.
    Region free DVD players (Score:1)
    by scubacuda (scubacudaNO@SPAMiname.com) on Tuesday December 16, @11:34AM (#1415)
    User #483 Info | http://www.greplaw.org/
    Google for 'region free DVD players' [google.com]. It's easier to buy one of these than it is to change anyone's mind on the issue.

    There are a thousand forms of subversion, but few can equal the convenience and immediacy of a cream pie. Noel Godin

    Re:Region free DVD players (Score:1)
    by LuYu on Wednesday December 17, @10:08AM (#1418)
    User #460 Info | http://grep.law.harvard.edu/

    I live in Taiwan. I can get region free players on the street. :)

    However, I do not like enforced censorship or DRM of any kind.

    "Anyone who doesn't quote me is paraphrasing."
    Re:Region free DVD players (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 17, @12:14PM (#1420)
    All the way over there? How did you find out about GrepLaw?
    Re:Region free DVD players (Score:1)
    by LuYu on Sunday December 28, @06:19PM (#1428)
    User #460 Info | http://grep.law.harvard.edu/

    The Internet makes the world quite small.

    "Anyone who doesn't quote me is paraphrasing."
    Not really racist, more like discimation against n (Score:1)
    by Number7 on Thursday December 18, @09:01PM (#1421)
    User #936 Info
    -nations * Japan is in Region2: Europe. Why is Japan in the European region? Is it because they had colonies? Or is it because they had a feudal system during first contact with Europe? Or is it because they behaved in as racist a manner as the Europeans in Shanghai? * No, it's because movies first released in the US(1) are then a few months later released in Japan and Europe(2), or at least that what it was when the system came out, now movies are released differently that Blockbuster president had to speak out about it. * Being able to speak languages from at least three of these regions, I would like to know why I am being segregated into choosing one. This segregation contributes to my ignorance and voids the purpose of copyright (which is to ensure the creation and dissemination of information for the purpose of accelerating progress). Is my position in the MPAA's global society decided by what language I speak, what race I am, or where I live? What if I do not agree?" * Sence DVD's are sold at different prices in different regions(60-20) in the US, to about 10 worth in India, It prevents me from ordering one from India and playing it a US region one. (Do note that in India due to it's reliance on the US and Europe for bussiness, English is like a second language, at least from the information I got)

    Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition. - Isaac Asimov

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