--- Forwarded Message from "Read Gilgen" <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Sat, 18 Oct 2003 18:56:52 -0500
>From: "Read Gilgen" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: #7278.11 Copyright and DVD regions

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I'll say it again.  Most of the fury revolves around various
"interpretations," usually by those who stand to profit the most. 
Actual law is often quite something else.  We need to exercise fair  use
rights, or we most certainly will lose them.

>>> [log in to unmask] 10/15/03 7:19:14 AM >>>
--- Forwarded Message from Judy Shoaf <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 14:52:33 -0400
>From: Judy Shoaf <[log in to unmask]>
>User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; WinNT4.0; en-US; rv:1.3)
Gecko/20030312
>To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum  
 <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Copyright and DVD regions
>References: <[log in to unmask]>
>In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>

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Actually, there is a law against rigging a VCR to skip or ignore the 
region codes on DVDs:

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Public Law No. 105-304, 112 Stat.

2861 (Oct. 28, 1998) (also referred to as the "DMCA") was passed by 
Congress in October 1998 and was signed into law by President Clinton
on 
October 28, 1998. This legislation substantially rewrites Title 17, the

U.S. Copyright Act, by creating new copyright-related rights not
limited 
to the prevention of traditional copyright infringement. The Act
imposes 
civil and possible criminal liability for the circumvention of access 
control measures and for the distribution of technology to circumvent 
access or copy controls.

from
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/DVD/dvd-discuss-faq.html#ss1.5.1


The "access control measures" could be construed to include the DVD 
codes. Our equipment room here refuses to buy DVD players that will
play 
other regions because of this.  I have a couple of the Odyssey machines

which are supposedly defined not as "no-region" but as "all-region" 
players, meaning that they can switch  from one region to another, 
rather than skipping the region code. I recall when I was considering 
the purchase the legal problem was in the offing and this distinction 
was pointed out on this email list as possibly legally significant. 
(They don't make the Odyssey any more, though, and to tell the truth I

am not sure how legal it is.)

So this is a nasty bit of business for language labs and the original 
suggestion (customize the DVD players on the computers in the lab by 
letting them set for particular regions legally) is not a bad one.

It is also true that the region codes are purely a device for the 
distributors to control access to the film (e.g. so that the French
will 
have to go to theaters to see Terminator III, even though DVDs are 
already available on the American market)--they have no other function.

The people whom the distributors are most upset with are people who
copy 
DVDs or transfer them to more portable media, or rig satellite cards to

allow free access to programming:
http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-5080807.html 

Judy Shoaf
University of Florida