DVD Players and regions

[Don Brown]

>So by implementing the REA, they are trying to 
>combat
>illegal DVD copies or something that a region free player could 
>play?

This kind of move comes about due to pressure from groups like the MPAA, 
rather than hardware manufacturers who just want to shift their wares.  REA 
is more about nullifying the spread of region-free players, in order to 
maintain the big studios' staggered theatrical release patterns around the 
world (i.e. to stop people in other countries buying the American DVD off 
Amazon etc. before the film is released in their country, hence supposedly 
damaging potential box office receipts).  REA is currently used only by 
some of the big US studios, and I've yet to come across it on Japanese or 
American independent DVD releases.  
Piracy is becoming a big issue for Jack Valenti and the MPAA, and is 
probably one of the big factors preventing them from throwing their weight 
behind digital delivery, such as downloading movies officially off the 
internet from studio-approved distributors.  Too many people are doing that 
already, albeit illegally now through ripping DVDs with DECSS variants 
(something that is extremely easy to do once you download the right 
software), compressing it with Div X and sharing it through Napster-esque 
networks.  The studios' efforts so far to encode their software to prevent 
piracy have failed miserably, so you can definitely expect more 
"improvements" in the nearish future.
As other list members have shown, there are always ways to get around 
region-coding, REA and even macrovision, and most straddle an increasingly 
blurred grey line of legality.  My advice is, if you're going to share such 
information, don't shout it too loud! :)
Don Brown
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/8th.samurai/electric.dragon       

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