Book People Archive

RE: "Jeroen"Globalize Info.

Jeroen Hellingman wrote Thu 3/29/01 7:44 AM:

<<DVD players that can play all zone's are easily available here. Most shops
will offer to convert them to zone-free/zone autoselect if you ask it, for
about $75.Some brands can be converted at ease (just a matter of swapping a
small eeprom), other (like Sony) are hard to convert -- so just don't buy
them. Some players are zone free standard (made inTaiwan)>>

I am acutely aware of this. But they are illegal within the USA. Case in
point several APEX DVD players were listed for sale on Ebay. The auctions
were closed and all bidders received notice that the items had been removed
from the auction due to copyright violation laws... It did not stop me from
being able to obtain one (quite easily actually), again over the internet
but through other sources. I am now happy to be able to view all DVDs
regardless of if they were considered worthy enough or not to be distributed
in the United States. Besides if you do speak other languages why would you
not choose to watch your entertainment in its original version? IS NOT THE
FOUNDATION OF DEMOCRACY A RIGHT TO THE FREEDOM OF CHOICE?

<<If a US website blocks me out based on my IP address, I can always log in
on a US based machine, then use that as a proxy, and surf on happily. That
way it was also very easy to get around those cryptography export controls
which some websites had implemented.>>

I appreciate your information, and am aware of this as well. There will
always be a way around to get the information you want - and plenty of loop
holes to toy with. But the issue here is that isolationism within the USA
was to have ended with WWI. What concerns me is that:

1)The US has always promoted itself globally through phony International
Public Relations provided courtesy of Hollywood entertainment - This drives
citizens from other countries to view America as the great Democracy which
those who have traveled the world know it is not. Today however, due to the
propagation of the news media, as well as strong international political
positions the US government has publicly adopted there is a wave of
anti-American sentiment on the rise. It does not stop the world from
enjoying Hollywood exports but it does finally afford a more realistic
vision of the American culture, and a way to separate truth from fiction.
What currently translates is that it is far easier to establish business
relations for an Asian in Europe say or vice versa then it is for the
Americans... And this will only continue to confirm itself as the USA sees
its export market potential consistently decrease in the future...

2)The US school system is paralyzed by inefficiency. This is not a trend it
has been a long time in the works. Having been raised in Europe I have had
the fortune of a "true" education that went way beyond the basics of what
the system here strives to instill. I reproach the US how it teaches their
youth to idolize money, rather than to motivate them to develop their minds,
which in turn may lead to eventual wealth. If the focus continues to be
placed not on the means to achieve the end, but just on the end goal this
culture is in for far more trouble... (the movie Fight Club is a very good
expression of the resulting discontent among today's US youth) And this is
only bound to get worse...

So what does this have to do with copyright issues you may ask? Everything.
I view the US population victims of their government and particularly big
business which clearly affects what information is made available to them or
not. Repressing information from its constituents is a dangerous form of
mind control, and limits the potential of individuals to successfully evolve
in an increasingly global society. I don't have children yet, but if and
when I do it will certainly not be in America where I strongly feel they
would be handicapped from becoming all that they can be. To experience
America at the University level is quite another story... at least it still
is for the moment... What a shame...

What can we do? Continue to strive to insure free and unrestricted access to
information over the Internet...

[Moderator: The legality of region-ignoring players-- or for that matter,
 the legality of region-encoding *itself* under international trade law,
 is still unsettled in the courts.   The Apex incident, in particular,
 is a bit more complicated than presented above, since the company that
 got eBay to take the player auctions off-line apparently did so based on
 the player's overrides of the company's *copy control*.  (Early Apexes
 could be configured to ignore both region codes *and* video copy control.)
 See http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,37072,00.html for a report.

 While access and copy controls in general are relevant to on-line books
 and free distribution, those interested in detailed discussions of DVD
 may want to check out more specialized forums, such as the DVD-discuss
 forum.  See http://www.cssfaq.org/dvd-discuss-faq.html for that list's
 FAQ and subscription information. - JMO]