--- Forwarded Message from Judy Shoaf <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2005 15:09:58 -0400
>From: Judy Shoaf <[log in to unmask]>
>User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.7.7)
Gecko/20050414
>To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum   
<[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: #7971 A cheap (really cheap) region-free pal/ntsc conversion DVD
(!)
>References: <[log in to unmask]>
>In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>

Interesting tip. I actually have an older player that is supposed to be 
set to multi-region but reverted to 1. I need to get someone to figure 
out how to switch it back (since it won't let me just select a region 
from the menu--it's stuck on Region 1).

I believe that most of the region-free players now on the market are 
simply players that the vendors have modified in just about the same 
way. What is legally problematic is making/using a technology that 
overrides a technology installed by the copyright owner on the DVD disk. 
  Skipping the region code probably does this, no matter who fixes the 
machine so that it will do that.

There are some new DVDs out there that won't play unless the DVD player 
is actually set to the correct region. (Beware recent Mouse productions, 
e.g.) Your experience in changing the region code would, however, come 
in mighty handy if what you need to do is switch the region back to 1, 
or to another region, to accomodate the disk. In principle, switching 
the region to 2 in order to play a Region 2 disk is perfectly 
legal--it's switching it to "code-free" that is legally problematical.

Go figure.

Judy Shoaf


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