General: My thoughts on film piracy

People who regularly read my blog know that I'm against film piracy. I don't download films from the Internet, and I don't share the films in my my possession with others, even though I'm equipped with all the software I need to make copies. But I make exceptions. The six films pictured above (there are two discs in the Legally Blonde collection) are films that I would gladly share with others.

Why? It's my way of making a protest. All six Blu-rays are locked to region A. For those not acquainted with Blu-ray regions:

Region A: The American continents.

Region B: Europe, Africa, Middle East and Australia.

Region C: Russia, China and Central Asia.

The following map should make it clear.

Any Blu-ray that is locked to a particular region can't be played outside of its geographical area. The main reason is that films are released to the cinemas at different times in different countries, so if (for example) a film comes to British cinemas six months later than in America, it's not possible to watch the film on an American Blu-ray disc in England before the film is in the cinema. The region lock is intended to protect the film industry. The argument against this is that the big films, the blockbusters, are always released simultaneously in all countries, at most a week or two apart. With smaller films the problem could be solved by delaying the Blu-ray release until the film has been shown everywhere.

Region codes are sometimes used as a form of censorship. Countries like Russia and China censor films with homosexual content, so they don't want foreign Blu-rays to be imported that include the censored scenes.

A third reason is for price protection. Blu-ray discs are more expensive in some countries than in others, so a country with high prices wants to protect its local film industry from cheap imports from abroad.

The biggest problem is that some films are only released in one country, so if they're region locked people in different countries can't watch them. An example is "Adaptation", shown in the picture above. It was released on Blu-ray in America, but in Europe it's only been released on DVD. Another possible problem is that a Blu-ray might be released in different countries, but after a while it's out of print in one of the countries. An example is the Legally Blonde Collection, which was released on Blu-ray in America and Germany, but is now only available in America.

Not all films are region locked. In the case of DVDs, region locks are common, but the large majority of Blu-rays aren't locked. The six films pictured above are the only ones in my possession that are locked to Region A. It's possible that I have (many) discs that are locked to Region B, but I wouldn't notice it because my Blu-ray player plays Region B Blu-rays.

Many Blu-ray players are multi-region players, able to play discs of any region. Multi-region players are usually more expensive than standard Blu-ray players that only play one region. Attempts have been made to prevent multi-region players working correctly, but so far they've been unsuccessful. In some countries the sale of multi-region players is prohibited.

Now let's get back to the question of piracy. In my opinion, any disc that's locked to a specific region is broken. If you can't play it in your Blu-ray player, wherever you live, the disc is defective. In my opinion, that justifies the creation of functioning copies. I'm willing to make region-free copies of any of the films shown above for my friends. Just give me enough money to cover my costs. I do that with a good conscience. If a company deliberately makes a defective disc, the company should be punished by piracy. My offer doesn't apply to "Seven", which has recently been released on Blu-ray in Germany, 18 months after the American release.

For the sake of completeness, this is the map of DVD region codes. What amuses me is that for Blu-rays Africa is in the same region as Europe, whereas for DVDs Africa is in the same region as Russia.