Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Won't Miss #268 - region code issues

From left top: Cinderella, Pinocchio, Gulliver's Travels
From left bottom: The Three Caballeros, Dumbo, Fantasia

One of the cool things about Japan is that their copyright laws aren't determined by the ability of big corporations to bribe lawmakers into infinitely extending them through backdoor means. That means that you can get professionally released DVDs of movies that might normally cost quite a bit more for a low price (like the 500 yen/$5.18 Disney movies sold above). Unfortunately, there is a snag. If you aren't planning on remaining in Japan forever, any discs you buy here aren't going to work back home unless you also happen to live in a Region 2 country. All of North America is Region 1, and Australia is Region 4. Pretty much only Europeans and the British are in luck when it comes to picking up DVDs in Japan that can be played in their drives back home without issue.

I won't miss not being able to buy DVDs because the region codes are different.