Regional Coding, for those unaware, is a restriction placed upon DVDs and DVD players by the MPAA (Motion Picture Assosciation of America). Every country is represented by a number signifying it's "region" on a DVD, which DVD players will read and, depending on the region of the DVD player itself, reject to play. Theoretically, according to the logic of analyst monkeys over at the MPAA, this is supposed to discourage "piracy."

Obviously, a great deal of the music I listen to is from Japan, so Regional Coding is a big problem for someone like myself in America who imports Japanese DVDs regularly. The US is labeled as Region 1 and Japan is labeled as Region 2, so if I import a DVD from Japan to watch at home, my US DVD player (which only accepts Region 1 DVDs) will reject it. Even DVDs which have Region 0 coding (meaning they SHOULD be playable on any player) are rejected by current Region 1 DVD players.

What is the point of this? I could understand such a restriction if a Japanese artist was going to release that tour DVD of theirs in the states at some point for example, but that's never going to happen. Likewise, I see that as being the case for a considerable amount of movies released internationally. Foreign movie producers abroad must have seen this as well, as I'm assuming its their complaining that eventually led to the introduction of Region 0 in recent years.

Region 0 means that the producer doesn't want to place any restrictions upon the viewing of their DVD. If you're a foreign movie producer and don't have the assets to market your movie to every country individually like the MPAA fatcats can, then obviously Region 0 would be your choice of encoding. Afterall, you still want people to see your movie abroad. This, of course, would solve quite a-lot of controversy. However, current Region 1 DVD players actually refuse to play Region 0 now!

I am totally baffled by this, because if the makers of the DVD themselves don't care, then why should the MPAA? The answer is that the MPAA doesn't really care about them (the producers) like they claim; all the MPAA cares about is itself. If they can't make money from a foreign DVD release, then they're going to make sure no-one else can either. They want to restrict what WE buy to the stuff THEY generate a profit from.

Personally, I don't think that the MPAA should have the right to dictate what Americans can or can't watch from abroad if they have legally bought and paid for it. If a Japanese artist releases one of his DVDs in Region 0 form and I buy it, who is the MPAA to say that I can't watch it? I blame the MPAA in this case rather than the manufacturers, because I know it is the MPAA forcing them to encode their DVD players like this.

When you get right down to it, Regional Coding doesn't serve any real purpose on an international scale other than as a means of the MPAA to force foreign producers to give them a cut of earnings here. Afterall, its either sign over to the MPAA or have your movie banned from US shores - because really, that's what Regional Coding actually IS: a sugar-coated way for the MPAA to BAN foreign movies.

All Regional Coding has accomplished is bringing foreign movie industries under the thumb of the MPAA. On an international scale, it has only restricted the ethical distribution and appreciation of varying artforms.

THAT is what I call "piracy."