[PW] Re: copyright issues--PAL to NTSC

[John Sleasman]

Michael Hart wrote:
> Sorry, rereading this and trying to take the grammar into account,
> or out, it is possible that Craig IS taking both sides. . . .
>   
... and the next problem is that there are multiple sides, not just two. 
Some of which may be subject to different (and contradictory) laws in 
different jurisdictions (the original message indicated that the 
purchase was made from amazon.uk, which implies that the original 
material may be subject to UK law, but having been brought into the US, 
is now subject to some jurisdiction here, after which you can get some 
lawyers to argue that it's still also subject to UK law, others that 
once it was imported, US law supersedes, and start an argument over 
priority and relationship). We simply don't have enough international 
agreement and national laws consistent with what international 
agreements we do have to define these issues "accurately." Ask five 
attorneys and get two or three general overviews, ten different detailed 
opinions.

More problematic technical issue for the original poster: Beware using 
the DVD drive in the laptop to play too many "non-native-area" disks 
without carefully checking your technical specs (which may be almost 
impossible to dig into and find). Because of DRM issues in the US, 
computer DVD drives typically have a limited number of "switches" that 
they can make between the original (region 1) coding and others. After 
you alternate too many times among home and foreign regions, the drive 
will usually lock on whatever the fifth regional change was (which means 
that you might be able to play ONLY the region two DVD, by luck of the 
draw).

Or move to Australia, where DVD players legally must be region-code-free.

John Sleasman
Solon, OH