Everywhere you go, there’s all this self-righteous hand-wringing about OMG PIRACY and what a dreadful, dreadful scourge it is (honestly, I see more anti-piracy adverts than “let’s all band together to fight cancer” adverts).
Hey, here’s a suggestion – how about getting rid of this DVD region BS and stop driving consumers into a corner? First they milk people for all they’re worth, then they complain when people take matters into their own hands. Why the HELL should I have to buy the Lord of the Rings box-set twice, especially considering the fact that the first two movies “seem to be sold out in Europe” (or so the store-clerks keep saying… I’d look for it online, but I’m presently having problems having stuff shipped to my new address)? Everyone’s talking about globalization, but what kind of “globalized” world forces you to buy duplicates of your entire movie collection just so you can watch said movies on your laptop?
Globalization my lily-white bum…
That’s all for now.
Kiev is beautiful. There was a man dancing with a football at our stadium tonight. Such unbelievable romance: the stars coming out, the grass stalks on the unkempt field, and someone who might as well be Cristiano Ronaldo silhouetted in the dusk. This is a charmed place, or a charmed moment, at the very least.
Natalia A. 
I haven’t bought a DVD in about 6 months… Now, I just download everything. Still go to movies, though; explain that!
p.s. I love hearing about other countries. once i get my bachelors, I’ve got a year in Japan waiting for me. Woo!
amen.
I bought an all-region DVD player. It rocks my world.
All the same, I have 3 copies of When Harry Met Sally.
My parents have an all-region, but it’s really fucking inconvenient when all I want to do is just watch the damn thing on a laptop on my tummy.
Srsly.
I’ve been reading a lot about piracy recently, and how anti-piracy measures hinder legitimate customers more than they do pirates (nothing hinders pirates).
The main problem seems to be that not only do publishers (DVD, games, whatever) want to get money from you for their IP (which is fine), they want to control everything you do with it once you have it (which is not so fine).
So, of course, people who want to watch DVDs on their laptops end up downloading movies because they can’t buy or rent region-appropriate DVDs when they’re traveling…for example.
Sympathies. 😦
Just Google “VLC Media Player” and download the thing. It’s freeware that lets you watch DVDs from any zone. It changed my life.