Regional lockout

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Regional lockout is the programming practice, code, chip, or physical barrier used to prevent the playing of media designed for a device from the country where it is marketed on the version of the same device marketed in another country.

Contents

[edit] Examples

[edit] Video games

The main regions are:

The earliest cartridge-based electronic games, such as the Speak & Spell lacked regional lockout, however in the case of the Speak & Spell the intended 4-12-year-old fanbase tended to restrict their use regionally by preference. Some modern consoles targeted at children such as V-Tech's V.Smile series of consoles are also known to be region free.

Most of Nintendo's handheld systems do not have regional lockout; because of this, import games can be played on those systems. In other words, a Japanese game would work on an American unit, although the game would likely not be in the user's native language and might be different from the product as released in other countries. Many "hardcore gamers" import games, usually from Japan or North America, if the game is released much earlier in that country than in their own, or for other reasons (see Import gamers).

The immediate successor to the Nintendo DS, the Nintendo DSi, is region-locked, but only in terms of its downloadable games. Physical DS game carts will play on it regardless of region of origin.

The PSP has no region locking for UMD games, except for a single title: BattleZone. However, UMD movies are locked by region. Furthermore, the firmware will disable features based on region. For example, Asian region PSPs will not display the "Extras" option on the XMB despite having been upgraded to the US version of Firmware 6.20, preventing owners of such PSPs from installing the Comic Book Viewer and the TV Streaming applications. Sony's states that the "Extra" function will remain disabled on Asian PSPs until the feature is officially launched in the region, and gives no reason for the option being disabled aside from that it isn't yet launched. Nevertheless, this denies Asian PSP owners from using the above mentioned applications on Asian PSPs, as the applications are installed through a PC and users from the region are not blocked from downloading the application, allowing installation on non-Asian PSPs that have been imported into the region.

Most of the seventh generation of video game consoles all have regional lockout, so games imported from other countries cannot be played on foreign versions of those consoles without some form of alteration to bypass the lockout. However, a number of games for the Xbox 360 have been confirmed as region free and will play on a unit from any region, although it is up to the publisher if a game is region free or not. Like the CD-i and the Panasonic 3DO, the PlayStation 3 is one of the few home consoles to be advertised as region-free.[1][2] However, while region free for PS3 games, there is region locking for backwards compatible PS2 and PS1 games, as well as DVD and Blu-ray Disc movies. Additionally, some games separate online players per region, such as Metal Gear Solid 4 Online. A PSN store only contains content for its own country, for example the UK store will not supply you with usable map packs for your Imported US copy of Call of Duty 4. The PS3 actually supports hardware region locking for PS3 games as well, based on Blu-ray regions[3], but as of current it is unused and all current region lockouts and separations are about online services.

Amongst personal computer games, regional lockout is more difficult to enforce because both the game application and the operating system can be easily modified. Subscription-based online games often enforce a regional lock by blocking IP addresses (which can often be circumvented through an open proxy) or by requiring the user to enter a national ID number (which may be impossible to verify). A number of other games using regional lockout are rare but do exist. One of the examples of this is the Windows version of The Orange Box, which uses Steam content delivery service to enforce the regional lockout.[4]

[edit] Advantages for producers

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  • Allows items to be released at different dates in different regions. This is most advantageous in the case of movies, where the costs of localizing and promoting a film make it prohibitively expensive to release in more than one part of the world at a time. Regional lockout theoretically prevents consumers from obtaining the item "ahead of time" by buying the item from a foreign exporter. (For example, buying the DVD of the latest foreign hit movie before the movie has even reached local cinema screens.)
  • Allows price discrimination between markets, thus increasing the potential revenue from worldwide sales and/or making products affordable in markets not tolerating the prices of other regions.
  • Allows the correct upstream copyright owner to receive royalties for each copy, where copyright terms or exclusive licensees differ between countries, notably as in the case of Peter Pan.
  • Different countries have different laws about violence or the presentation of children in games, so some games like Fallout 2 have different content based by region, which allows the producer better control over meeting legal requirements.

[edit] Criticisms

 This article may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (September 2007)
Please help improve this article by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (July 2009)
  • It can complicate, or entirely prevent, legitimate enjoyment of works and products which were legally obtained in a different region. (e.g. Purchased while travelling, given/sent as gifts, or brought when moving internationally.)
  • It allows items to be launched at different times in different places, so eager customers in some countries must wait for the items to be sold locally instead of importing them sooner.
  • Thousands of works are exclusively released to one single region and, if locked, become permanently unattainable by legally-minded consumers, with no monetary benefit even to the media producers.
  • It allows price-discrimination, which may be illegal in some countries.
  • It presents a barrier to free trade, which may be illegal in some areas such as the European Union. Since the accession of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia there are two regions in the European Union, restricting trade in the bloc. This state of affairs has yet to be tested in court.
  • Allows market control which may violate anti trust laws in some countries.
  • Localisation may be unsatisfactory to the consumer for the work. (e.g. Inferior dubbing or voice-acting, mistranslation and misrepresentation of cultural contexts, inferior or less desirable soundtracks, missing features, complete unavailability of the original language, outright censorship, unoriginal format.)
  • Regions inevitably isolate some cultures and language groups from others, forbidding the educationally minded from using works from other regions to learn more about that region's languages or cultures.
  • Regional lockout may actually promote copyright infringement, software cracking,modding, and product pirating as it may make the 'official' version of a product seem less desirable due to the restrictions placed on it.
  • The term Fried Gold is often used to refer to the release or substantially greater extras available in one country compared to another, this is often true of cult movies and TV series, or films that have different rights owners in different regions.

[edit] Effect on society

Because regional lockout is commonly used to enforce price discrimination (or "price differentiation"), the disparity in the price of an item between different locations encourages consumers to import goods privately.

For both video games and movies, there is a so-called import scene or import community. In many cases, fans and collectors buy Asian or Japanese movies or games from online stores and eBay sellers prior to their release at home. Often these titles are not even scheduled for release overseas (e.g., some anime), or fans want to see and play the titles in their original unaltered form (e.g., uncut or in Japanese).

The largest import communities are the Asian martial arts community, video games community, and the anime community. Because of the number of anime tie-ins produced for video game systems, the latter two communities have a great deal of overlap. For example, Naruto and One Piece are big hits on DVD, in comics, and on game systems.

Members of import communities usually need a way to circumvent regional locks. In many countries, region free DVD players are available, and there are ways to make game consoles region free via modchips.

In certain regions, such as Hong Kong, these technical lockout mechanisms are in conflict with local legislation.[citation needed] The law allows the free sale of imported goods, but technical barriers are put in place by game system and DVD player manufacturers. In Hong Kong, DVD players are usually modified by the distributor and sold region free without extra cost, while buyers of PlayStation or PlayStation 2 consoles have to pay extra for a pre-installed modchip in their game console.

[edit] Economic effects

Because of Sony's region lockout for Universal Media Disc (UMD) movies, the Japanese (and die-hard fans with import consoles) have to buy their UMD versions of movies for about $40 (¥3,990), while the very same film is available in the US for $13.99. It is legal in Japan to import movies and even prohibited by law to restrict imports, but due to region lockout it is impossible to play a disc from another region without additional technological measures.

From the consumer's point of view, the result is products that could be available more cheaply elsewhere, and being questionable restrictions on what they can and cannot buy (and watch).

From the region lockers' point of view, the result is a higher income, less intra-brand competition (because there is no rivalry or free trade between competing territories), and greater control of price in affected markets.

[edit] Defeating regional lockout

[edit] Video games and consoles

  • A PlayStation Portable with CFW (custom firmware) or a "hacked" firmware can be set in the recovery menu to any region or to all regions, thus allowing it to play UMDs or ISOs from another region.
  • Most handheld video game systems, including all Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS systems (excluding the DSi), are made region free. The Sony PlayStation Portable has regional lockout for UMD movies and games (although it is optional for games and to date, very few games are region-locked). The Play-Yan, currently a Japan-exclusive device, can be imported and works on other models.
  • The PSP Go, a variation of the Playstation Portable, is not physically region locked but is effectively region locked due to the way in which a PSP Go must be linked to a single Playstation Network (PSN) account. Since each account is locked to a single region, this prevents the user from ever playing games from more than one region at a time (since games from accounts other than the currently linked account cannot be started).
  • Japanese GameCube, Saturn, and Mega Drive consoles can be modified with a simple bridge (jumper) to allow playing of US game discs. Such modifications do not allow the console to play pirated or "backup" games, only legitimate games from another region. North American Sega Genesis and European Sega Mega Drive consoles contain small plastic tabs at the cartridge opening that can be clipped or bent to allow unhindered use of Japanese games on Western systems.
  • Boot disks such as the Wii Freeloader for the Wii and the Utopia bootdisk for the Dreamcast can be used to start foreign versions of games for the systems. Equally, boot cartridges containing software bypasses for pre-disc systems exist for most major systems of the time frame.
  • The Twilight hack (BannerBomb hack, or the Stack Smash exploit) for the Wii, when combined with GeckoOS, allows the user to bypass the Wii's region locks.
  • The NTSC versions of Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), and the Nintendo 64 all have simple pin-based lockout schemes that are easily converted with a third-party device. In the case of the SNES and N64, plastic tabs which block insertion of Japanese games into North American consoles can be snipped away with a set of pliers.
  • Devices like regional converters are used to bypass regional lockout without circumventing copy protection.
  • A game console could be imported from the correct region to play imported, region-encoded games. This approach would likely require voltage and/or video converters to prevent damage to the system, and for the video to display correctly. But still online gaming may not work in many cases because of IP address blocking, although technically minded and determined players may attempt various methods like using open proxies to circumvent IP address blocks.
  • Console emulators can ignore region-control hardware, even when emulating consoles that originally had regional lockout, since some consoles use different BIOS ROMs depending on region.
  • A number of Xbox and Xbox 360 games which have multiple voice acting soundtracks recorded have been released region free.
  • Like the PSP, the PlayStation 3 is region free for all PS3 games. However, backward compatibility modes (i.e. PlayStation 1 and 2 games) are region locked. Blu-ray Disc and DVD region codes are also enforced.[5] While the PS3 does have hardware regional lockout support,[3] Sony apparently has no intentions to use it.

[edit] DVD

For more details on this topic, see DVD region code.
  • A DVD player could be imported from another region, although it would most likely require a power adaptor and/or video system converters.
  • Most DVD player models have a unique region defeating unlock code that can be tapped into its remote control to make it region-free, allowing the owner to watch DVDs bought from anywhere in the world. Comprehensive information on doing this can be found on the Internet; see the external links section of DVD region code for links. Many cheap no-brand DVD players do not even have region locking.
  • DVD computer drives can usually have their firmware reflashed for less-stringent regional control (i.e, RPC-1 instead of RPC-2). Replacement firmware can be downloaded from the RPC-1 firmware site.[6] Certain computer drives don't even need to be reflashed, instead a program to issue a disable, reset or switch code to the drive is sufficient.
  • libdvdcss is capable of circumventing region codes on all RPC-1 DVD drives and the majority of RPC-2 drives.
  • Region codes can be removed from the DVD using software such as DVD Decrypter to copy it without copying the region lockout flags, creating an all-region DVD. Such software can usually remove Macrovision, Content Scrambling System (CSS) and disabled user operations (UOPs) as well.
  • Many home computers that have DVD playing software such as Cyberlink PowerDVD can play DVDs from any region. The computer can then rip the files from the DVD, which can then be burned to a DVD-R, which the user has control over which region code it uses.

[edit] Blu-ray Discs

  • SlySoft AnyDVD bypasses regional lockout for BD discs, for BD-ROM/R/RE computer drives, since version 6.4.0.0.
  • Unlike DVD region codes, Blu-ray region codes are verified only by the player software, NOT by the drive or the computer operating system. The region code is stored in a file of the player software or in the registry. (In stand-alone players, it is part of the firmware.) On some Internet fora, hacks to reset the Blu-ray region counter of player software are available. Another method sometimes suggested is the deinstallation and reinstallation of the player program.
  • Region-Free Blu-ray players (modified or otherwise) have also appeared in the market as of 2007. These players are usually meant for the Hong Kong or Australian markets, where regional lockout is deemed anticompetitive and illegal. Most of them support only Regions A (Americas, Japan, East Asia except Mainland China) and B (Europe, Greenland, Near East, Africa, Australia, New Zealand), NOT Region C (Russia and largest part of Asia), but most Blu-ray discs from Region C are region-free anyway.
  • A number of companies, including Panasonic and Matshita, have attempted to counter both the laws regarding region-free players in countries and the attempts to reverse flash the firmware of Blu-ray players by forcing a region check on a hardware level where this cannot be accessed by anyone except the manufacturer. This renders many drivers unable to play region discs outside of their region or receive any firmware or software patches to circumvent these lockouts.
  • Unlike standard DVDs about 70% of Blu-Ray discs are not Region locked, therefore they can be played on any player in any region.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Sony Execs Talk PS3". 2006-09-22. http://blog.wired.com/games/2006/09/sony_execs_talk.html?entry_id=1561160. Retrieved 2008-11-03. 
  2. ^ "Playstation 3 will be region free". 2006-03-23. http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2006/03/23/playstation-3-will-be-region-free. Retrieved 2008-11-03. 
  3. ^ a b PlayStation 3 Secrets - ...but there exists the possibility to region lock (based on Blu-ray game region) games if the publisher decides to do so.
  4. ^ Frank Caron (2007-10-25). "Valve locking out user accounts for "incorrect territory"". http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2007/10/25/valve-locking-out-user-accounts-for-incorrect-territory. Retrieved 2008-03-15. 
  5. ^ http://www.gamespot.com/pages/profile/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=m-100-24746743&user=James_Yu
  6. ^ http://www.rpc1.org/

[edit] Bibliography

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