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Date: | Mon, 9 Jun 2008 14:00:14 -0400 |
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--- Forwarded Message from Judy Shoaf <[log in to unmask]> ---
>Date: Mon, 09 Jun 2008 08:56:54 -0400
>From: Judy Shoaf <[log in to unmask]>
>User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.9 (Windows/20071031)
>To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum
<[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Legality of non-Region-1 DVDs
I have been spending some time on the Videolib list and the following
article spiked a discussion there:
http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/stories/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1212223071
195010.xml&coll=2
The consensus of Videolib (librarians and reps of various DVD rights
holders) was that, no matter what the article says, the DVDs in question
were undoubtedly Chinese bootleg versions of the materials, and
therefore illegal.
The article, however, is claiming that the DVDs owned by the public
library are copies fully licensed for manufacture and distribution in
Region 3.
Their illegality would depend on a proposition that the DVD regions are
not a matter of encoding but of geography: one cannot sell (or buy) a
DVD outside its region.
The only thing I can think of would be that the Chinese distributor has
a contract specifically prohibiting sale to the US. But the article
implies that this is an appeal to or test of copyright law itself.
NB the region coding is evidently not being circumvented, since the
players involved supposedly match the region code. In what I have read
of cases re. this law, it should be perfectly legal for an individual to
play non-region-1 DVDs so long as no region-free player is involved
(e.g. it can be legally played on a computer drive or a region-specific
player).
Comments?
Judy Shoaf
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