DeCSS, is it wrong when your not American?

[tyger_claw]

Here's a thought,

I am a Canadian, which means that the Millenium Copyright Protection Act does not apply to me.

If I own a DVD player and went on a European trip and purchased a DVD that's only available in Europe, like a DVD from a Museum or Play, is it unethical for me to use the DeCSS code to modify my DVD player to play the Region2 coding?

Some may say yes and some may say no. I never did understand why the courts did say that the DeCSS code was wrong. Some people will use the code in a wrongful way, yet aren't we allowed to have "fun" with our own personal products?

I've always enjoyed the who GNU GPL from Linux community. Being able to modify the code to your liking, making the program better for your needs. Nothing has frustrated me more then searching the net for a program and having to use three different programs to do the few things I want. One offers one feature while another program offers the other......

So why not do the same for our DVD players? It's the same as a car, or a pizza ,or a house! Think about it! Someone purchases a pizza from say Pizzahut, and gets the Meat Lovers. Now, with the way the courts have done with the DeCSS and DVD, you can't modify, well what about my pizza? What if I wanted the Meat Lovers but wanted to add mushrooms to it, because I'm a mushroom addict? Wouldn't that, in a sense, be like using the DeCSS code? I'm changing the marketed version of my pizza, a Meat Lovers, into my personal choice, Meat Lovers w/ Mushrooms. Same with a car. You buy a car, pop the hood and change the sparkplugs to those crossfire plugs for better performance and gas use. I just modified my car from what the dealership gave me. Instead of say 180hp with 20mils/gal, I now have 185hp with 23mils/gal.

Is this not in the same light? Sure, I'm making an analogy between DVD and Pizza, but do I not have some point? Because of the whole DeCSS topic, when I go on my trip in Europe, I either have to refrain myself from either purchasing a DVD or have to purchase a European DVD player to go with the DVD.....

Thankfully, I own a DVD Rom and can download players that support the Region 2 codex, but what about the rest of the people......

[rcgreen]

I'v never quite understood how region coding
is going to prevent piracy.
Sophisticated "pirates" have factories where they
can manufacture unauthorized DVDs for all regions.

If you bought a legally manufactured DVD from
another region, they'd have a hard time convicting
you in a court of law. What have you stolen? NOTHING.
Test cases wil have to go to court and see what the
judges think.

[tyger_claw]

Exactly! We have stolen nothing!

I do understand that the Region Code is for the different television displays but besides that, it's retarded!

[Tedob1]

the differance is pizza hut isn't big enough to but their own politicians. :-)

[tyger_claw]

cute