I note the contents of Nadine Edwards DVD survey with interest, particularly
as some of the respondents have Region 1 capable machines. I would suggest,
assuming you have not already done so, that anyone planning to offer access
to Region 1 DVDs needs to look into the legal implications.
At present the sale of Region 1 DVDs in this country for private/personal
use is not permitted. There are companies which sell them, with varying
degress of openness, but there have also been instances of such outfits
attracting the attentions of Customs & Excise. Therefore I am surprised to
see Region 1 being implicitly reported in the survey as a legitimate option
to be taken almost for granted and which appears to be standard on some
players.
3 of the players in the survey are openly described as multi-region. Things
may have recently changed but it certainly used to be that all DVD players
sold in this country had to be Region 2 only.
However, I cannot say whether the situation is legally any different for
academic institutions.
My concern here is not in supporting the protectionism of the DVD region
system but about not wanting to see fellow information workers end up in
legal difficulty over Region 1. Be careful out there.
Ian Jennings
University of Huddersfield Library Services
|