From: Alden S Klovdahl (Alden.Klovdahl_at_anu.edu.au)
Date: Fri Oct 01 1999 - 00:30:27 EDT
> If book publishers would have divided the world in regions and
> would have required that we use special glasses to read only the
> books printed for one specific region, they would have been
> called unethical (or worse).
>
actually, book publishers *have* divided the world up into regions.
american publishers have north and south america; british publishers
have britain, australia and other english speaking countries. this
allows them to reduce competition, charge higher prices in different
markets, and make more money. thus, for example, if an australian
bookstore tried to import the latest nyt bestseller into aus the u.s.
publisher would not fill the order. this has loosened up a bit in
recent years, but not much.
presumably, that is why hollywood, sony, and the rest wanted DVD region
coding...to make more money.
of course, the fact that the world has become more global, that someone
using a thinkpad might wish to put a U.S. DVD in their machine when in
the U.S., a French DVD when in France, an Australian when down under, etc.
doesn't really fit with profit maximization aims.
the best solution is simply not to buy a DVD player or DVD disks unless or
until a scheme more in keeping with modern global society is developed. ...
and is guaranteed not to change to unbreakable region encrypting when
everyone has left CDs for DVDs.
regards, al
Alden S Klovdahl / alden.klovdahl_at_anu.edu.au / fax: +61 2 62 49 05 25
Sociology Arts / Australian National University / Canberra ACT Australia 0200
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