It's Mr Video versus Universal Studios

[Lipgloss]

Mr Video LOST the court case against Nu Metro, Universal Studios, Fox, Warner Bros & Disney. It is illegal to trade in Zone 1 product. Watch press for details later today.

 

[PeterCH]

I don't work for a studio or distributor so I have no say in why they do what they do and I know they are in it for the money. Good luck to them.

I do work in my own business and have been in this industry for just over 3 years. What I do know is that for as long as there has been regional coding (for whatever reason) it has been illigal for a rental shop to stock anything that does not fall into their zone because of licensing agreements between the studios and local distributors. Until our government and our courts decide this is unfair and scrap the zoneing system and tell me it is OK for me to stock any zone in my shops I will not break the law.

It's not the actual REGION on the disk which makes the disk illegal to retail or
rent in the other region, it's the agreement between the copyright holder and the local distributors IF ANY. Many indie and foreign films and dvd releases,
eg DVDs not offered on the NM/SK catalogue, anime or films from other countries, may still have different regions on them but since NM/Hollywood/SK is not owning their rights, you can rent them out as it's highly doubtful their copyright owners would pursue you OR you
can easily obtain permission to resell these items in your region from
worldwide distributors. The other issue is that the DVD being rented has
no rental rights on it and is a home video version. In some localities it's possible to buy two versions of a DVD, one with rental rights and one without,
still those rental rights are usually for that given locality OR if the
copyright holder does not object it can be worldwide (usually small
or obscure foreign productions).

Self importation for personal use is ALWAYS LEGAL folks.

 

[PeterCH]

Mr Video LOST the court case against Nu Metro, Universal Studios, Fox, Warner Bros & Disney. It is illegal to trade in Zone 1 product. Watch press for details later today.

It's not illegal to trade in ALL region 1 product. Only products IRRESPECTIVE of region (also region 1, 2 (Japan or Europe), 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) WHICH ARE ALSO OWNED by Universal Studios, Fox, Warner Bros & Disney.
I know because I have a distributor/wholesaler account at Rightstuf.com
and they don't mind (they own world rights for some of their DVDs).

I can tell you where for R300 you can buy an R2 version with rental rights
of say - the latest James Bond DVD but doing business with that item in
SA would still be illegal in a civil court, same goes for SK's R2 releases of
above studios films if imported and sold in Europe, it would be illegal there
although I was told that the European Commission has various limitations
on what a copyright holder can consider illegal (it may even be legal in
the EU to do that irrespective of what Hollywood thinks or wants).

 

[PeterCH]

Why is it illegal for rental shops to stock other zones, but you can buy DVDs from different zones at any of our local online stores (take2, kalahari, etc)?

It's legal because Take2/Kalahari etc DO NOT STOCK copies of these
items. When you place the order, they place an order with their supplier,
in effect you are authorising them to act as your agent to buy the film
ABROAD for you, then bring it back to SA. Its like you going to USA to buy a DVD, they are acting as your airline and taxi cab.

On the other hand Look&Listen stocks lots of Region 1 and Region 3 (AUS)
DVDs. Why is that legal? I guess it's legal because the stuff they stock (art stuff from Criterion, indie US films and Anime) are works for which
NM/SK do not hold SA distribution rights for. Since NM/SK do not hold rights for these items in SA, they can't sue the retailer.

 

[PeterCH]

1. Region coding was implemented to protect against piracy - that is the benefit. Did you know it is a proven fact that money generated from piracy has been used to fund terrorism?
.

That's not true. As someone else said its to protect revenue streams and to allow for different distributors to resell in different economic zones at different times. Look at it like that: USA/Canada is region 1 = biggest market,
Region 2 = rich countries after USA - Europe, Japan and us and the seperately Australia, Mainland Asia, China, USSR(CIS) etc. US releases
are usually cheaper than Region 2/3 ones while Region 5/6 releases
may be even cheaper but are much more limited in variety.

Region coding has been found illegal in some localities. I think Australia
has found so. I think that EU DOES NOT prosecute Region Code violations either, they basically told Hollywood to f-off. Besides that personal
importation of ALL DVDs is legal (except for porn or contraband) in most
countries.

Region coding is most consumer unfriendly and can be circumvented easily
in all cases, either right out of the factory or by using a third party patch or program.

As for piracy, I don't believe piracy is used to sponsor terrorism. Most DVD pirate factories are
located in mainland China nowadays, and those guys don't sponsor Al Quada.

 

[Mephisto_Helix]

As for piracy, I don't believe piracy is used to sponsor terrorism. Most DVD pirate factories are located in mainland China nowadays, and those guys don't sponsor Al Quada.

true that .... they just wanna try scare peeps into not doing piracy, so they mention terrorism .... stupid a$$es that they are.

 

[Movielover1]

Ha ha ha! Look who's laughing now!!

Video stores face legal action
12/06/2008 17:33 - (SA)
Cape Town - Video and DVD rental stores across South Africa may face legal action if they are found contravening copyright laws, said law firm Webber Wentzel on Thursday.
This came after the Cape High Court interdicted Mr Video and 22 of its franchises from renting out DVDs that had copyright infringements.
The firm's Anthony Norton said the franchise had imported at least 100 recently released films and rented them to the public without consent from the studios who owned the copyright.
He said the DVDs also had not been acquired through Nu Metro, the authorised licensee in South Africa.
The firm said that Mr Video acknowledged it had infringed copyright laws and had been interdicted from renting out the movies.
Webber Wentzel was acting for major Hollywood studios including Universal, Warner Bros, United International Pictures and the Disney Studio.
Norton said other video and DVD rental stores across the country faced similar action if they were found infringing copyright laws.

 

[Devill]

Video stores face legal action
12/06/2008 17:33 - (SA)
Cape Town - Video and DVD rental stores across South Africa may face legal action if they are found contravening copyright laws, said law firm Webber Wentzel on Thursday.
This came after the Cape High Court interdicted Mr Video and 22 of its franchises from renting out DVDs that had copyright infringements.
The firm's Anthony Norton said the franchise had imported at least 100 recently released films and rented them to the public without consent from the studios who owned the copyright.
He said the DVDs also had not been acquired through Nu Metro, the authorised licensee in South Africa.
The firm said that Mr Video acknowledged it had infringed copyright laws and had been interdicted from renting out the movies.
Webber Wentzel was acting for major Hollywood studios including Universal, Warner Bros, United International Pictures and the Disney Studio.
Norton said other video and DVD rental stores across the country faced similar action if they were found infringing copyright laws.

Yes so the greedy people like you win again Whats new?