Sigh. Okay, I understand the reason for region codes on DVDs from the POV of the Powers That Be. What's released on DVD in one country hasn't always made it to the movie theatre or the syndication screens of another country, so the UK doesn't want Buffy DVDs being sold before the advertisers who are paying for the syndication of the series get their profits, and any country who hasn't brought out Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban out yet at the movies doesn't t want their theatres to lose revenue.

On the other hand, it strikes me as the stupidest vehicle to lose sales on Earth. What if someone in the US or Canada (Region 1) has visited the UK (Region 2) and fallen in love with a particularly British-oriented series that hasn t been syndicated here (or which was shown here once and then never again)? Chances are because it's not a Monty Python or Are You Being Served? there's probably no chance you'll ever see it on US TV. (This applies vice versa as well.) Then out comes the Region 2 DVD. If you have a region-hackable player or a region-free player, the producers of that series have made another sale. But that's only "if." There are so many different programs that haven't crossed the pond, or crossed in a different format, that it's quite annoying.

And sometimes the price boggles, too. For instance, the cheapest I ve found the second series of All Creatures Great and Small here is $50 (with postage). I can get the Region 2 version, even with airmail overseas postage, for only $40! There are American movies, for some bizarre reason, that are only in release in Britain, like Disney s So Dear to My Heart. Then there's one of my favorites, 84 Charing Cross Road, which is available here only in a full-screen version. The same movie is sold letterboxed in Region 2 (and is the same price, even with overseas postage).

Thank God for region hacks and region free!

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 6:00:00 PM

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