It\'s lengthy, but it struck me as interesting. Just thought you guys would like to read it...
Australia going region-free?
09:05 | Musashi |
http://www.forumplanet.com/planetps2/topic.asp?fid=1447&tid=534318Comment!
This is certainly interesting news. AsiaPulse is reporting that Australian authorities from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), as well as international anti-trust authorities and the EU are investigating the regional classification system used by film studios and media companies.
ACCC chairman Allan Fels said "We have strong reason to believe there may have been a breach of the cartel provisions of Australian laws and possibly other laws by virtue of a seeming agreement by the movie studios to divide the world up into six regions...we haven\'t got very complete explanations at this stage. If they have an agreement, that\'s unlawful."
The idea behind regional classification is that the studios can adjust pricing for each region, and is supported by regional locks in DVD hardware preventing one from playing DVD media from a region other than that of the player. If you\'re wondering what this has to do with the PS2...the group formed to investigate the regional coding system has intervened in a legal proceeding initiated by Sony to ban mod chips that allow regional lockouts to be overridden, preventing owners of PS2 systems to play DVD movies or games outside of their region. Sony\'s own regional system comprises 3 regions, which prevent PS2 users from playing games from other regions.
This is an interesting development in the ongoing battle between manufacturers of mod chips and console manufacturers. Just recently Sony defeated Channel Technologies, makers of the \'Messiah\' mod chip...forcing them to abandon manufacturing of the controversial chip. How this initiative will affect future Mod chip development remains to be seen.
(Information source below.)
http://www.planetps2.com/news/#PQN350275
