[78-L] They are practically Giving away the Vitaphone DVD set!

[Michael Biel]

Jamie Kelly wrote:
>> Unfortunately they won't sell outside the U.S.
>> so we in Australia miss out.  Jamie

From: David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca>
> They wouldn't sell to me in Canada either until I listed my
> US shipping address as the billing address. I keep a PO box
> just over the border, a little over 90 minutes from Toronto. dl

Although this wouldn't affect Canada, if the discs were Region One, that
would imply that they were not licensed for sale in Australia (Jamie) or
England (Earl) or elsewhere outside of North America.  But they are not
marked for a region (DCD-Rs are not usually region coded -- I could tell
if I unhacked a machine to another single region instead of all-regions
which is how my machines are set, but it's too much trouble).  However,
whether or not they are region coded, the box IS marked "Not authorized
for sale or rental, outside the USA."  

Of course, the question "WHY?" is really what everyone is asking.  The
whole point of region coding was to allow the companies to release the
films around the world in the order and the schedule they want.  That
requires, of course, that there are distributors in those other
countries that WILL release the films.  That seems highly unlikely in
these cases.  So this implies the other purpose for region coding -- the
restricting of films to only the country or countries they want to
release it in and THE HELL WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD.  But, that is
America for you.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com