[ukabdale]

I recently moved from the U.S. to the U.K. and also have hundreds of region 1 discs. For me it was only an issue when I travelled with my MBP (which I do a lot) because I have a region-free DVD player and a HD TV that handles PAL/NTSC/SECAM.
I bought my MBP in January and have used the same websites mentioned above to flash the firmware to "RC1" aka region-free. I then use the Region-X program to change the software region code before playing any of my DVDs. It works great.
Another way I have circumvented the issue is by using Mac-The-Ripper, Handbrake, or DVD Shrink (for PC) to decode the DVDs and save them in ISO format on a little 1TB NAS attached to my home network. Then I copy the ISO I want to my MBP before setting off, mount it, and watch.
If I'm home, I mount the ISO remotely and "stream" the DVD over my wireless network to my iMac or MBP. For travelling it's perfect because I don't have to cart DVDs around. Thinking about it, that would probably be a good way for Macbook Air users to take their movies with them.

[macwilf]

I wasnʼt even aware of this utter stupidity and on my iBook, I used up all my region changes, thinking that they cannot be this stupid, can they, not even bothering to look up what it meant. Then I learnt that, yes, they can be this stupid.

I mean, what is a laptop for? Travelling, moving around.

Do they want people to buy DVDs? I thought so, but I am not so sure now. Maybe they think that people will only go on holidays and short business trips and then they will bring with them a couple of DVDs for entertainment. No way that people actually will move from one country to another, not to even think of living in one country and working in another.

Well, I guess they just love the fact that people will give what comes out of a ratʼs behind for buying their products and embrace piracy or anything which makes it work the way it should have been working.

Well, even the Gods discovered that to fight stupidity was in vain...

[rickcarl]

Well, yes, BUT...
You had problems for different reasons.
The DVD region flag is enforced by the DVD player. The DVD player has a license to be manufactured in specific regions and the license requires checking for the flag. That's all.
Because some DVD players with firmware flashes will play anything, another flag was introduced to check if the DVD player was a single region. This was called RCE.
In addition, some software has a region setting. Like firmware flashing, software manipulation was introduced to hide or reset the region.
MTR, I believe, has to play the DVD to first discover the encryption system before it can decrypt it to remove DRM. There're discussions whether this is controlled depending on where you live and local laws. Note to flamers/ranters: post if you must but at least try to find something original to say about it.
VLC is different than region codes and violates DRM through deCSS. There is open discussion whether deCSS should be controlled in both the U.S. and the Republic of South Africa. Personal use in the U.S. may mean something different for a foreign resident in RSA when it comes to law enforcement. Note to flamers/ranters - original - you get the idea.
A legal alternative is using a DVD player - one with 110/220volt 50/60hz switching for use in S.A. - which also unlocks/converts/outputs the PAL for the S.A. televisions - since PAL is locked in still another marketing move in the U.S. (okay, because of the electrical supply). Since PAL is 4% faster than NTSC, you can watch more movies faster. See this.
Upsampling conversion is not recommended for quality but downsampling high definition to PAL is okay. Any conversion to iPod or other format may also be controlled or at least subject to an additional copyright fee. Flamers/ranters - original...offer legal alternatives.
I believe anything you do at home is simply private however crossing international borders or being involved with local police on an unrelated matter my result in additional charges over copyright violation if public. Laws vary by region and courts vary the interpretations also.
That's why I recommended multiple legal devices in all cases and MTR/VLC only where it is known to be legal for home use such as in Australia or selected neighborhoods in the U.S. Okay, that was a joke.

[park_uk]

Being abroad with the U.S. military means that we face this problem all the time. I am in the UK and there are a lot of excellent movie DVD's not available in the US, but playing them on my computer is just not an option.

[DisabledTrucker]

I've seen every other option here but just going to www.rpc1.org to download an updated firmware for your drive that has the region information removed from it and installing that. If your drive's not supported, go get one that is, and use it along with the new firmware. Pioneer units are usually good about having firmware updates on that site to "unlock" your drive.

[dougoftheabaci]

DisabledTrucker said:

I've seen every other option here but just going to www.rpc1.org to download an updated firmware for your drive that has the region information removed from it and installing that. If your drive's not supported, go get one that is, and use it along with the new firmware. Pioneer units are usually good about having firmware updates on that site to "unlock" your drive.

Actually, it was. By me in fact. Though I didn't mention RPC1.org directly I mentioned this page which is where all the Mac firmware from RPC1.org ends up, including the firmware for the latest MacBook Pro SuperDrives.

I also state that it can be an issue to use these if you have Leopard since the firmware flashing programs are all designed for Tiger and won't run on Leopard. However for those of us with UJ-857 SuperDrives we can get the firmware from that page or using a system developed by Ben11 from RPC1.org, who is the one who usually creates region free firmware for Macs anyway.

[DisabledTrucker]

Let me put some facts out here, that some people don't seem to know beans about.

1. MTR is like your DVD player, it reads the disk to find out what the DRM is before it rips it, so that it can tell you what it is. This check takes all of about the amount of time it takes to load the disk. And will make your disks readable, though there are some that will either need tweaking, work, or an update to get to rip. The main set back is the cost to beta test this software, at $50 US it's not worth it.

2. I'm not sure about VLC but, deCSS is legal and is used in a lot of DVD players, as that's the only way one can run DVD's on anything but, Windows or those players that you hook to your TV.

3. Ripping DVD's in the U.S. falls under the "Fair Use" act. Once you get rid of the DVD, (this includes giving it to a relative,) the copy must be destroyed. To copy something for your own use is okay as long as your not sharing, selling, or otherwise giving someone else use of that material. What you do inside the privacy of your own home is your business in this regard, it's only illegal when others have access to it as well. Outside of the US, laws vary on this, some say you can't even make a backup for your own use in your own home, others say they don't give a damn what you do with it, (though the latter is less frequent than the prior.)

4. The only true way to be able to watch one of the DVD's from another region that always has worked for me and many others is to go to RPC1.org and download a new firmware for your device and flash it with it. Sure you may end up losing whatever warranty you had, you could "fry" your drive, and other problems but, for the most part people that upload the firmwares there have been throughly checked so that problems like this don't occur as a lot of times it's just a matter of turning a single bit or two on or off in the code. I've used this method on all my drives since the first drives were hacked several years ago and never once had any problems with it but, YMMV. If you follow the directions, which are fairly simple, start the patch, let it run, when it tells you to reboot, do so and it's done. You'll want a cheap CD in there for "just in case" for some of the firmwares to load, (those AOL disks you get in the mail are perfect for this,) just make sure it's nothing you really want to keep.

5. What firmware patching does in most cases, (besides provide a way to upgrade your drive to support features that it may have turned off,) is allow you to run your drive as an RPC0 drive, which will accept all the regions. Which since it's running as RPC0, RCE sees that it's selected and goes on about it's way but, still people like to remove it when they copy their DVD's so they don't have to worry what the next drive they put it in is set at.

Okay so it's a serious hassle that the conglomerates have come up with just to irritate it's customers but, then again, if your living in another country they just want you to purchase the player there to play their coded DVD's on, instead of using the one you brought with you from your home country. You have to remember though, this wasn't a problem back in the day when the smallest drives would take up a floor model TV's entire top just to sit on. I guess that they never thought someone would eventually make them small enough you can carry them in your pocket everywhere you go or that you'd even want to!

[DisabledTrucker]

Quote

{quote:title=dougoftheabaci wrote:}
> {quote:title=DisabledTrucker wrote:}
> I've seen every other option here but just going to www.rpc1.org to download an updated firmware for your drive that has the region information removed from it and installing that. If your drive's not supported, go get one that is, and use it along with the new firmware. Pioneer units are usually good about having firmware updates on that site to "unlock" your drive.
{quote}
Actually, it was. By me in fact. Though I didn't mention RPC1.org directly I mentioned this page which is where all the Mac firmware from RPC1.org ends up, including the firmware for the latest MacBook Pro SuperDrives.

I also state that it can be an issue to use these if you have Leopard since the firmware flashing programs are all designed for Tiger and won't run on Leopard. However for those of us with UJ-857 SuperDrives we can get the firmware from that page or using a system developed by Ben11 from RPC1.org, who is the one who usually creates region free firmware for Macs anyway.{quote}

Okay, I got mine from going to RPC1.org, of course I used OSX 10.4 to do mine with so I wasn't aware there wasn't a Leopard updater at the moment. As far as that goes, you can also load Windows XP in bootcamp and do the same thing, which is how I did one of them...

[rickcarl]

Interesting beans that you call facts. The legal option is to buy a DVD player. It works.

[dougoftheabaci]

rickcarl said:

Interesting beans that you call facts. The legal option is to buy a DVD player. It works.

Yes, you are given the option of buying a region free DVD player, and they aren't even that expensive these days. However, stating that is the only legal option is not in fact true. All of the options already stated are completely legal.

New firmware is legal because it's modding your own hardware. This is a long standing tradition in the computer world. It's what Linux is all about after all. Ripping a DVD as a video or with a program like MacTheRipper so that you can watch it without region coding on any of your devices is also legal. It's called space shifting and basically means you have the right to move your media from one format to another in order to use it. Notice how RIAA hasn't actually made the argument in court that ripping a CD is an illegal act (press releases aren't the same). Where it becomes illegal is when you then pass that copy off to someone else. Also, saying VLC player is illegal is just crazy.

[smax013]

dougoftheabaci said:

New firmware is legal because it's modding your own hardware. This is a long standing tradition in the computer world. It's what Linux is all about after all. Ripping a DVD as a video or with a program like MacTheRipper so that you can watch it without region coding on any of your devices is also legal. It's called space shifting and basically means you have the right to move your media from one format to another in order to use it. Notice how RIAA hasn't actually made the argument in court that ripping a CD is an illegal act (press releases aren't the same). Where it becomes illegal is when you then pass that copy off to someone else. Also, saying VLC player is illegal is just crazy.

Like or not, ripping a CD (in general) and ripping a DVD are NOT the same. Ripping a CD does not come up against any DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) issues (unless it is a CD with copy protection, which after Sony's rootkit fiasco, is rather rare). Ripping a DVD requires you to circumvent the CSS encryption, which technically makes you run a foul of the DMCA in the process since you are "circumventing" copy protection. This provision technically kind of creates a conflict with Copyright law's Fair Use provisions. Thus, some would question whether it is enforceable...not to mention there have been some developments along the way that supports the notion that it is unenforceable. But, I don't believe it has been truly tested one way or another. Regardless, there is ZERO issues with ripping a CD in general as long as you don't give, sell, etc a copy while keeping another. DVD's are a slightly different ball of wax. Until there is either a definitive court ruling on which takes precidence, Fair Use or DMCA, or until Congress modifies the DMCA to indicate the circumventing copy protection for legal personal use as allowed under something like Fair Use, there is a possibility that you might be breaking the law in the US by ripping a DVD, even if doing it purely for your own use and you don't give away or sell a copy. Having said that, I am not sure how interested the MPAA is interested in suing their customers for such acts as it would likely be a rather good public relations mess.

[rickcarl]

from doug... saying VLC player is illegal is just crazy.


info from videolan



|3.3.|Is libdvdcss legal?|
| |The use and distribution of the libdvdcss library
is controversial in a few countries such as the United States because
of a law called the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). If you are
unsure about the legality of using and distributing this library in your
country, please consult your lawyer.

h3. Note
Beware: VLC media player binaries are distributed with the libdvdcss library included.

|
|3.4.|What about personal/commercial usage?|
| |Some of the codecs distributed with VLC are patented and require you
to pay royalties to their licensors. These are mostly the MPEG style codecs.
With many products the producer pays the license body (in this case MPEG LA) so the user (commercial or
personal) does not have to take care of this. VLC (and ffmpeg and libmpeg2
which it uses in most of these cases) cannot do this because they are Free
and Open Source implementations of these codecs. The software is not sold and
therefore the end-user becomes responsible for complying to the licensing and
royalty requirements. You will need to contact the licensor on how to comply
to these licenses.

This goes for playing a DVD with VLC for your personal joy ($2.50 one
time payment to MPEG LA) as well as for using VLC for streaming a live
event in MPEG-4 over the Internet.|

Rip equals rip-off.

[dougoftheabaci]

@smax013:
As you yourself stated all of this also falls under the category of Fair Use. As such, since it's a grey area, it can be argued to be illegal and legal at the same time. Thus, until a ruling body decides one way or another it is theoretically not an illegal act. Just because one law states it is and another says it isn't, the one saying it isn't in that situation since it's more specific to the uses of the individual for personal enjoyment of legally purchased merchandise takes precedence.

@ rickcarl:
How many contracts and legal terms and conditions have you had to write? I only ask because I had to write my first contract as part of freelancing only a few weeks ago and I can tell you 99% of the language used is simply to cover one person or another from any liability in case anything should be considered illegal, whether an illegal act has been taken place or not. You'll find the same sort of language in any photo editing program as well in case someone uses images they don't hold rights to use.

Because of this, listing terms and conditions doesn't really constitute the use of a program as illegal or any feature of it. Where the use of VLC Player could become illegal is if you used it to copy a DVD to your computer and then distribute it. You can with the export features. Also, playing a DVD outside it's region does not constitute an illegal act therefore playing it on a computer that is region set to another region would not be an illegal act either. Even if the concept isn't sound on it's own merits think about this: Why would you be allowed to change DVD regions on your laptop for playback of DVDs if doing so might allow you to engage in an illegal act?

[Chris Breen]

Before this thread devolves into a legal argument between non-lawyers, let me offer that I've spoken to Intellectual Property lawyers about this subject and subjects like it and even they're iffy on a lot of this stuff for exactly the reason that Fair Use and the DMCA are at odds. License agreements can say what they like ? they're not legally binding. Until these issues are tested in court, there's no real knowing what is and isn't kosher.