--- 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 *********************************************** LLTI is a service of IALLT, the International Association for Language Learning Technology (http://iallt.org/), and The Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning (http://www.languageconsortium.org/). Join IALLT at http://iallt.org. Otmar Foelsche, LLTI-Editor ([log in to unmask]) ***********************************************