--- Forwarded Message from Laura Atkinson <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 12:16:48 -0400
>From: Laura Atkinson <[log in to unmask]>
>To: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Hollywood and Region Codes

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Forgive me if I'm being horrifically naïve, but if Hollywood would simply 
release everything at the same time around the world, what harm would that 
do? Then no one would need the region codes. N'est-ce pas?

I'm sure the answer is that somehow they make more money by releasing 
things at different times, but shouldn't we balance the good of society 
(i.e. universities being able to teach languages effectively) against the 
financial concerns of Hollywood?

I think we, in the academic world, need to fight this in any way we can. I 
agree with Ed. Once we've legitimately purchased a disc, shouldn't we be 
able to use it?

If all this region business is so that Hollywood can prevent Japan from 
seeing something that's just come out in the U.S., then why, pray tell, 
should some ten year old film in France have a region at all? That's what 
really frustrates me, is that lots of films and videos that don't stand to 
make much money in any situation have region codes. There's a British tv 
series that I love, and they've just come out with the entire series on 
DVD, but if I buy it at amazon.co.uk, I can't watch it. They are shooting 
themselves in the foot - lots of Americans would buy it if we could watch 
it. But they've limited themselves to the Region 2 market.

I think a revolution is definitely in order.

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Laura Atkinson
Technical Coordinator for Foreign Language Computing
Duke University
[log in to unmask]
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