What the ACCC has to say on DVDs (Score 3)

I was actually at a Continuing Legal Education seminar the other day and Ross Jones from the ACCC was there. He had a bit to say on the DVD encoding and he made it sound like they were definitely going after it on a couple grounds. Firstly Australia has a worse selection of DVDs than the US, secondly there is evidence to suggest that region 4 DVDs are worse quality than their European and American counterparts. Also the encoding makes it difficult for consumers on holidays to places like the US to pick up DVDs legally and watch them here. Ultimately they see the region code as a matter of price discrimination and aren't pleased about it.

He also ran through the possible counter arguments and gave some defenses. The argument that the encoding prevents movies on DVD been released in the US before they get a cinema showing here is pointless now as the cinema releases normally run to close together to make a difference. He also suggested that as most music DVDs are region 0 its definitely not impossible for them to do this and even pointed out that not having to provide local content maybe cheaper.

I'm just happy to know that they will go after this because I'm sick of Australia having expensive DVDs and generally dodgy tech laws it also nice to see that they actually do know what they are talking about.... Oh and here is a link to the seminar material.. (its about 3/4 of the way down)
http://www.accc.gov.au/speeches/2001/Jones_Intel le ctual_Property_11_5_01.htm
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