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.

Examples

Video Games

• In the video game industry, Nintendo was the originator of regional lockout for video games. Regional lockout in video games is when a piece of hardware is designed such that only software for that region is compatible. Most video games have region encoding.

The main regions are: The computer and video game industry is the economic sector involved with the development, marketing and sale of video and computer games. ... Nintendo Company, Limited (任天堂 or ニンテンドー Nintendō; NASDAQ: NTDOY, TYO: 7974 usually referred to as simply Nintendo, or Big N ) is a multinational corporation founded on September 23, 1889[1] in Kyoto, Japan by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda cards. ... Hardware is the general term that is used to describe physical artifacts of a technology. ... Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ... This article is about computer and video games. ...

• Japan and Asia (NTSC-J).
• North America and NTSC territories.
• Europe, Australia and PAL/SECAM territories.

The Game Boy Advance has no regional lockout, while the Nintendo DS and the PlayStation Portable do not have full regional lockout, though some reports claim the later firmware revisions may contain some regional lockout enforcements; because of this, import games can be played on those systems. In other words, a Japanese game would work on an American unit, albeit 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. NTSC-J is a videogame region which covers Japan. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ... NTSC is the analog television system in use in Canada, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, the United States, and some other countries, mostly in the Americas (see map). ... World map showing Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth. ... For other uses, see PAL (disambiguation). ... SÉCAM (Séquentiel couleur à mémoire, French for sequential colour with memory) is an analog color television system first used in France. ... GBA redirects here. ... The Nintendo DS, sometimes abbreviated NDS or DS, is a handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo, and first released in 2004. ... The PlayStation Portable (officially abbreviated as PSP) is a handheld game console released and manufactured by Sony Computer Entertainment. ... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... Import gamers are a subset of the video game player community that partake in the practice of purchasing games from another region, usually from Japan where the majority of games originate. ...

The PSP does have partial regional lockout, and uses the same regions as DVD. As of February 2006, the lockout is only used for UMD movies and not for games, although Sony has hinted it is up to the developers if they want to include region protection in their games.

The sixth generation of video game consoles 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. The sixth-generation era (sometimes inaccurately referred to as the 128-bit era; see section below) refers to the computer and video games, video game consoles, and video game handhelds available at the turn of the 21st century. ... Console may be: An organ term for the area of an organ including the keys, stops, and foot pedals manipulated by the organist. ...

DVDs

• DVD Video discs are the most infamous and visible example of regional lockout. Computer DVD drives come from the factory with RPC (Regional Playback Control), either RPC-1 (older drives) or RPC-2 (newer drives). The difference between the two is that RPC-1 means the player software has the responsibility of enforcing the region control, while in RPC-2, it is enforced by the drive's firmware.

It means that RPC-1 drives can play DVDs from any region (0-7) while RPC-2 drives play only from a particular region (although the region code can be changed 5 times after which it is locked) The following is an excerpt of the article entitled DVD. For the sake of convenience, the terms Region 0, Region 1, Region 2, Region 3, Region 4, Region 5, Region 6, Region 7 and Region 8 redirect to this page. ... DVD (commonly Digital Versatile Disc, previously Digital Video Disc) is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for data storage, including movies with high video and sound quality. ...

Technical design

Regional lockout usually requires hardware manufactured by someone who can be trusted to support the methods chosen. For example, manufacturers need a license to produce DVD players, and games consoles are generally produced by only one company per console. The hardware is typically instructed to play only media designated as for a particular region, and that region is then encoded onto the media.

For instance, a Japanese GameCube game disc is encoded with a marking NTSC-J (NTSC Japan), and GameCube consoles from Japan are programmed to only play games with that marking, not PAL or NTSC-M (NTSC US/Canada) game discs.

Legal design

In addition to technical measures, regional lockout schemes are generally supported by legal measures. For example, the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has a clause that covers "circumventing a scheme used to restrict access to copyrighted material" that may be used to prosecute people who ignore, circumvent, or crack a regional lockout scheme. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a United States copyright law which criminalizes production and dissemination of technology that can circumvent measures taken to protect copyright, not merely infringement of copyright itself, and heightens the penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet. ...

Often such regional restrictions are in conflict with national law, for instance in pioneering regions such as Hong Kong, where parallel import is expressly allowed and supported by government bodies. Also, the High Court of Australia has recently concluded that modification of devices to circumvent region lockout is allowed under Australian law[1]. A parallel import, also known as a grey product, refers to a genuine (ie. ... High Court entrance The High Court of Australia is the final court of appeal in Australia, the highest court in the Australian court hierarchy. ...

It also violates the international copyright treaty [2], Article 4[3], which equates electronic media with that of other literary works such as books, with the copy owner having the right to buy, read, and sell the material anywhere in the world, as well as Article 10 [4], which prohibits the introduction of national legislation that limits copy owners normal use.

Advantages for producers

• Allows items to be launched at different times in different places, without allowing people to obtain the item 'ahead of time' by purchasing from abroad.
• Allows price differentiation between markets, thus increasing the potential revenue from worldwide sales.
• Ability to restrict content which may be illegal in some countries (e.g., Nazi material in certain European countries, or pornography in the Middle East).
• When distribution contracts for each area are awarded to different companies, it allows a company to avoid "stepping on someone else's toes".

National Socialism redirects here. ... Pornography (from Greek πόρνη (porne) prostitute and γραφή (grafe) writing), more informally referred to as porn or porno, is the representation of the human body or sexual activity with the goal of sexual arousal. ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ...

Criticisms

• It prevents legitimate enjoyment of a product that a consumer has legally bought in a different territory. People who emigrate can often find their entire collections, which they legally own, unable to be played in their new country of residence.
• Regional lockout promotes copyright infringement, software cracking, and modding, as it makes the 'official' version of a product less desirable due to the restrictions placed on it (as in the above case of a user relocating to another region).
• 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 (which may never happen) instead of importing them sooner.
• 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 challenged in court.
• Works may not be able to be enjoyed in their original language due to product localisation (e.g., dubbing)
• Localisation may be less than satisfactory for the work.
• Works may be released with different features in different regions, making these inacessible for some region users. For example, DVD releases are very often released earlier and with more special features in Region 1 (US and Canada) than in Region 4 (Latin America, Australia).

Copyright symbol Copyright is a set of exclusive rights regulating the use of a particular expression of an idea or information. ... Software cracking is the modification of software to remove encoded copy prevention. ... Modding is a slang expression for the act of modifying a piece of hardware or software to perform a function not intended by someone with legal rights concerning that modification. ... Free trade is an economic concept referring to the selling of products between countries without tariffs or other trade barriers. ...

Effect on society

Because regional lockout is commonly used to enforce price discrimination^{[citation needed]} (or "price differentiation"), the disparity in the price of an item between different locations encourages consumers to import goods privately. Price discrimination exists when sales of identical goods or services are transacted at different prices from the same provider. ...

For both videogames 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 main cast of the anime Cowboy Bebop (1998) (L to R: Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Ed Tivrusky, Faye Valentine, and Ein the dog) For the oleo-resin, see Animé (oleo-resin). ...

The largest import communities are the Asian martial arts community, video games, 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. Hawaiian State Grappling Championships. ... This article is about computer and video games. ... Naruto romanized as NARUTO in Japan) is a manga by Masashi Kishimoto with an anime TV series adaptation. ... Serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump Shonen Jump BANZAI! Original run August 4, 1997 – (ongoing) No. ...

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. A modchip is a device used to play import games and/or circumvent the digital rights management of many popular game consoles, including the Xbox and PlayStation. ...

In certain regions such as Hong Kong and Australia, these technical lockout mechanisms are in conflict with local legislation. 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.

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 version of "The Punisher" 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 thanks to the region lockout, it is impossible to play a disc from another region without additional technological measures. A UMD The Universal Media Disc (UMD) is an optical disc medium developed by Sony for use on the PlayStation Portable. ...

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. It should be noted that these practices directly contradict the principles of free market capitalism, especially that espoused by Adam Smith. Many consider that it strays into the realm of price fixing. A free market is an idealized market, where all economic decisions and actions by individuals regarding transfer of money, goods, and services are voluntary, and are therefore devoid of coercion and theft (some definitions of coercion are inclusive of theft). Colloquially and loosely, a free market economy is an economy... For other uses, see Capitalism (disambiguation). ... For other persons named Adam Smith, see Adam Smith (disambiguation). ... The examples and perspective in this article do not represent a worldwide view. ...

Defeating regional lockout

This section appears to contradict itself. Please see the discussion on the talk page.

• Region free, especially in DVD players, means that the device is shipped by the manufacturer without the ability to enforce regional lockout. In Australia, every DVD playing unit excluding PC devices, is shipped modified with a Region free chip installed, this was a result of a landmark ACCC case in which the supreme court ruled that region lockouts breached fair trade and market competition practices.
• Most handheld video game systems, including all Game Boy systems, are made region free. The Sony PlayStation Portable has regional lockout for UMD movies and games (although it is currently unused for games). The Namco Museum has Region 1 encoding on the USA version. The Nintendo DS does not have regional lockout. The Play-Yan, currently a Japan-exclusive device, can be imported and works on other models.
• 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.
• Boot discs such as the "Freeloader" or the "Utopia boot disc" can be used to start foreign versions of GameCube and Dreamcast games, respectively.
• The 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.
• Some countries' laws consider regional lockout to constitute unfair restraint of trade; all DVD players sold in those countries must be region free.
• Devices like regional converters are used to bypass regional lockout without circumventing copy protection.
• A game console or DVD player 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.
• Console emulators can ignore region-control hardware, even when emulating consoles that originally had regional lockout. Some consoles use different BIOS ROMs depending on region.
• DVD computer drives can usually have their firmware reflashed for less-stringent regional control (i.e, RPC-1 instead of RPC-2); See RPC-1 firmware site.
• PlayStation 3 will be region free for gaming, according to Michael Ephraim of Sony of Australia. Sony Computer Entertainment has abandoned the practice of regional lockout. However they are hunting importers and import sites like Lik-Sang. Publishers will have the choice to release region free PlayStation 3 games.
• Nintendo Wii will be region locked, according to this site.
• In some countries such as Australia, DVD players are sold region free or with instructions to remove region locking.
• A comprehensive source on removing restrictions manually on a number of different DVD Players can also be found on the Internet; See DVDExploder.com
• A number of Xbox and Xbox 360 games are region free.

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DVD codes that bypass regional lockouts

There are a few established websites on the Internet dedicated to defeating DVD regional locks on home DVD players. Many 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. AllDVDCodes.com is an example of a subscription website that gives DVD player owners' these privileges. It contains a large database of DVD unlock codes that will make a player multi-region using the routines explained above.

See also

• NTSC
• NTSC-J
• PAL

• Console converter
• Copyright misuse
• DVD region code
• Fan translation
• Fritz-chip
• Modchip
• Parallel import