Imports from other regions - moral issues? No.

Just wanted to comment on this part of today's editorial:

"Am I saying that defeating Region coding is the right thing to do and that the consumer doesn't have to take any responsibility? No."

This seems to equate "importing discs from elsewhere" or "defeating region coding" with bootlegging and piracy, and to imply that those activities are morally wrong. That position is silly and untenable.

Defeating region coding and importing discs from elsewhere is not like software piracy or bootlegs. It is not "wrong". It is perfectly legal (in fact, it is legally *protected* by various international free-trade agreements) and you are paying a legally licensed seller/distributor of product. The people who created the film will be paid for it (either directly in royalties or indirectly from licensing fees) based on your purchase.

If you prefer a release from another region, go right ahead and buy it. There is nothing, NOTHING morally wrong with doing this.

In fact, the whole region coding scheme is rather dubious in the first place, with respect to those international free-trade agreements, and can certainly be seen as protectionism and anticompetitive practice - as Pete actually mentioned earlier in the editorial. The whole region-coding scheme is even illegal in New Zealand (where all players must be region-free), presumably for that reason. If anybody's doing anything "wrong" here, it is most certainly the studios who impose region coding, and NOT anybody who imports discs.

I fully understand that a site like this wants to be clear that it doesn't support piracy or bootlegs - that's fine. Piracy is illegal, and paying for pirated discs means that the money ends up with somebody other than the creator of the product (sometimes, with organised crime), which therefore might reduce the revenues of the product's creators. So it can be argued that piracy is morally wrong.

But importing legally-licensed DVDs from abroad? There's nothing whatsoever wrong with that and, in fact, it's your right.

(Disclaimer: I live in Europe and buy all my DVDs from the US, because apart from a very few Hollywood titles, I only buy niche-interest [anime] DVDs which are not available here in the UK.)

--sam

[micahp]

Damn Skippy!

(that being the most intelligent vote of agreement I can muster this morning, I shall crawl back in my hole now.)

------------------
Resident Me,
Micah P.
Digital Dreams
Home of the Spider Monkey.

Hear,Hear!!(raising glass )

j

------------------
Fast Mopars, Faster Computers, and
High Performance Home Theater!

[Dominik Pfleghaar]

I, too, import all of my shiny little discs from Region 1 (I live in Switzerland which is R2) and have yet to encounter any twinges of conscience

------------------
Unca Dom, DDS-088
dvdfile.com administrator
dominikpfleghaar@netscape.net

I don't understand why most of these "moderators" feel like you owe these movie studios anything--Take George Lucas for instance (he's an easy target and the current "Great Satan"). He's holding off on releasing Star Wars on DVD for some unknown reason. If I got offered the Special Edition Trilogy on DVD for a good price, I wouldn't hesitate buying it. I wouldn't feel in the least bit sorry for LucasArts "losing" out on my $100--like they say "Money Talks--bull*** walks". If somebody wants something bad enough, they don't care where they get it from. DVDs are like a drug, can't get enough of them!! And The Star Wars Trilogy would be the crown jewel!!!! Like none of them would pay "just to check it out". Seems to me that if they're talking about how bad the quality is, they've already seen them, so they themselves have already committed a crime by viewing bootlegged copies...

[Chromy]

Moderators? Us? Where?

As far as I have seen we are all against George Lucases stance of not releasing the DVD. We realize that this fuels the fires of bootlegging. Several moderators have expressed interest in buying the DVD bootleg. Dom just said that he imports R1 DVD's to Europe for his own enjoyment and feels no guilt.

Wait, what was the topic again?

Really though, where is all of the condemnation for those that bootleg StarWars from the moderators?

Chromy

if there is no real problem, I'd like a link to some R2 sites if possible, if not, just email me. BTW, which region is Japan? Looking for those kool dts discs

j

------------------
Fast Mopars, Faster Computers, and
High Performance Home Theater!

[Hendrik]

"...Dom just said that he imports R1 DVD's to Europe for his own enjoyment and feels no guilt..."

I also import most of my DVDs from the USA - as do thousands of others all over Europe, I'm sure!

1) The fact is that if I want title XXXXX, it's most likely to be out in Region 1 long before it hits Region 2 (Europe).

2) Even if I were to wait patiently for this title to (eventually! finally!! at last!!!) appear on a R2 DVD, I would have to face the following:

a) order it from the UK (with the attendant risk of the BBFC having kindly cut out a few seconds here and there to spare me the ugly sight of headbutts, etc.)...

b) order it from France, where the movie, besides being generally uncut and featuring a French soundtrack, will also feature the original soundtrack - but with 'forced' (i.e. non-optional, non-removable) French subtitles...

c) order it from Germany, where the movie, besides frequently being rather severely cut (even more so than a UK version!), as often as not features only a German-dubbed soundtrack or, at best, German and English soundtracks, the latter with non-optional subtitles...

d) generally pay considerably higher prices, no matter what the title, or disc-issuing country, than I could get ordering the same title from the USA, even factoring in shipping and taxes to be paid locally...

It would be interesting to know what percentage of US DVD suppliers' (e.g. Express.com) business is done 'overseas' (not just Europe, but Australia, Israel, South Africa, Far East)...

FWIW, my DVD 'collection' includes about 15% Region 2 discs, the rest are all Region 1...

(signed) Hendrik-The-Long-Winded

! !