Video Region Encoding - Legal issue?

[Disease]

Anyone know the stance/legalities for modifying a dvd player to region free, seeing as region 1 is only authorised to play in USA etc.

Thanks.

[StewartKnight]

I would imagine that it's not illegal. If you OWN region 1 discs, then you need to be able to play them. Many DVD players come are region free straight out of the box anyway!

[Disease]

That does not seem true though as the reason for encoding the DVD's is so it can only be played in that specific region.

"The Reasons For DVD Region Coding

Why does DVD region coding exist, you ask? According to what the public is being told, such coding is a tool to protect copyright and film distribution rights (in other words, movie studio profits).

Movies are released in theaters in different parts of the world at different times throughout the year. That Summer blockbuster in the U.S. may end up being the Christmas blockbuster overseas. If that occurs, the DVD version of the movie may be out in the U.S. while it is still showing in theaters overseas. "

So therefore is it a breach of copyright licence to play a dvd in a country it is not licenced for?

[StewartKnight]

Taking that argument further, you'd be breaking copyright by going to America, and seeing a film that hasn't been released in England yet!

[Dos_Box]

I have quite a few region 1 DVDs (mainly Studio Ghibli and Anime) and the £17.99 player from Tesco unlocked quite happily.
Vista MCE however does not even want to entertain the idea.

[cooper]

The £20 player from asda also plays all disks so ive been told.