DVD region code blocks British Prime Minister from enjoying Obama's gift

"Oh, bollocks." No, we can't definitively prove that Gordon Brown said that after witnessing a "Wrong Region" code when inserting a DVD given to him by Barack Obama, but we're sure something of the sort was uttered. You see, the ridiculous DVD region coding system recently prevented the British Prime Minister from viewing a set of 25 "American classics" on DVD, all of which were bestowed upon him by President Obama during a recent visit to Washington, D.C. We hate to bludgeon a dead mule, but seriously, when will the DRM madness end? Er, on second thought, maybe this is precisely what's necessary to keep those region-free player outlets in business, and thus, the economy strong.

[Via techdirt, image courtesy of AmericaLives]

[Fraggle.Rock @ Mar 20th 2009 5:47AM]

Many standard DVD players in the UK and elsewhere in Europe can play region 1 source material. In fact, on Amazon.co.uk they have a section devoted to region 1 DVDs.

I'm sure PM Brown was able to figure it out :-)

[Vanillacide @ Mar 20th 2009 7:27AM]

I pointed this out in The Daily Telegraph comments section on the day the gift was given, it was a story here in the UK because of the relationship (or lack of one) that was demonstrated.

British PM Gordon Brown gave US President Obama a gift of a pen holder, carved from the timbers of HMS Gannet, built in Chatham shipyards 130 years ago; timber from its sister vessel, HMS Resolute, was used in the Oval Office desk.

Obama gave Brown a cheap DVD boxset of 'hundred greatest Hollywood movies' that his team must got down the street, the Whitehouse probably sent an intern out with $100 of petty cash to buy a gift.

The double irony is that (a) Brown is a sports fan and not a movie one (b) all the discs are Region 1 and he cannot watch they unless he has a legally grey multi-region DVD player. So even if he wanted to watch the movies, he could not do so.

Our socialist overload deserves no less.

[nikster @ Mar 20th 2009 8:18AM]

Brand name DVD players are still region locked. Do you think the british prime minister has the latest Sony BD player or a cheap chinese import from the local supermarket that cost 20 quid? With the Sony, you are pretty much screwed. Because that company takes the region code dead serious.

[Andir3.0 @ Mar 20th 2009 8:54AM]

"a gift of a pen holder, carved from the timbers of HMS Gannet, built in Chatham shipyards 130 years ago; timber from its sister vessel, HMS Resolute, was used in the Oval Office desk."

I could care less if it was made of extinct wood extracted by pygmies using OJ Simpson's Jock strap. It's still just a pen holder, and it's still just a desk. I don't understand the fascination people have with this crap.

[wjousts @ Mar 20th 2009 9:58AM]

@Andir: It's called symbolism. The HMS Resolute was involved in anti-slavery patrols and Obama is, you know, black. It's a thoughtful gift which reflects the progress made by African Americans since the end of slavery.
A bunch of DVDs that won't even play in the PMs DVD players is just shockingly thoughtless. The White House is stock full of historic artifacts and the best they can come up with is a boxed set of DVDs from Best Buy?

[Hawkman @ Mar 20th 2009 10:09AM]

@wjousts:

"A bunch of DVDs that won't even play in the PMs DVD players is just shockingly thoughtless." – and therefore utterly, utterly brilliant. Brown has a serious case of the try-too-hards without any actual brain, and Obama clearly thinks he's not worth the time of day. I hope it was a calculated snub; I may not be the Great O's biggest fan, but it'd still be nice to think he agrees with the rest of us that our PM is a talentless dick.

[Sam @ Mar 20th 2009 10:18AM]

"The double irony"

Triple Irony i suppose would be the vast majority of the movies were written/directed/starred and produced all by Brits...

[wjousts @ Mar 20th 2009 11:16AM]

@Hawkman: As much as you might dislike Brown, I think when world leaders meet, a snub tends to be seen as a snub of the whole country, not just the PM. As a Brit living in the states who likes Obama (and is no fan of Brown), I was embarrassed by the whole thing.

[Mike P. @ Mar 20th 2009 11:16AM]

Actually, Obama is half-black. But most people perceive a half-black (half-white) person to be black anyways.

And yes--a very thoughtful and symbolic gift on Brown's part. Obama's... not so much. Surely one of his team could've put a little more effort into researching the gift, and at least (if they were going to stick with the DVD idea) throw in a $100 US-region DVD player.

[derekwf @ Mar 20th 2009 12:15PM]

@Mike P

Actually, he's not even half.

He's 50% White, 43.5% Arab, 6.5% Black.

[Justin Paulson @ Mar 20th 2009 12:31PM]

I thought most DVD players allowed you to change your region at least 5 times.

[CraigJ @ Mar 20th 2009 12:44PM]

@andir:

"I don't understand"

That's correct, you don't.

[RoboDan @ Mar 20th 2009 12:52PM]

I would have given him region free blu-ray ripped .mkv's from TPB

Much more thoughtful... and more HD'er

[Jay @ Mar 20th 2009 12:56PM]

@Vanillacide
It is a bit lame to reply to the first poster, just so your post can be 2nd in the list. Your post had nothing to do with what you replied to.

[Andir3.0 @ Mar 20th 2009 3:19PM]

It's still just a pen holder.

[tekd @ Mar 21st 2009 6:36AM]

Man, I'm a fairly big Obama supporter but I have to say it was mortifyingly embarassing for Brown to have given Obama a pretty awesome gift and for us to have given him...unplayable DVDs.

I don't think it was meant as a snub, I can only presume that the new administration isn't sure what kinda stuff it can be giving away from the White House yet. And mostly I think it was just that they didn't realize that Brown would show up with such a well thought out gift.

It's not every day that a foreign head of state shows up with a gift nearly as thoughtful, so it's kind of hard to expect the US to have known in advance that they should think up a similarly great gift.

The DVDs are pretty pathetic regardless of what Brown brought though. *sigh*

[Laughing Man @ Mar 21st 2009 11:07AM]

How is that a great gift. "Here you go. A long time again we gave you guys a really cool desk you can't use because it is one of a kind, so just look at it. This is the pen holder that was suppose to have come with it. Sorry about the 4 or 5 decade delay."

[Pizzicato @ Mar 20th 2009 5:52AM]

sudo apt-get install regionset

[Oli D @ Mar 20th 2009 7:02AM]

And thats why i love Bownbuntu

[Aaron @ Mar 20th 2009 10:44AM]

Every DVD player and DVD drive in my house is region-free. I frequently travel overseas and like to buy DVDs of local musicians/bands/groups, and can't be bothered worrying about the latest Morning Musume disc being region 2 or BoA disc being region 3.

Region coding was doomed to failure from the beginning. Studios should remove the unnecessary coding because it is so easy to bypass. Then again, thanks to DeCSS, copy protection is also unnecessary since it is so easy to bypass too.

[pk @ Mar 20th 2009 5:53AM]

ROFL.

[johnston88 @ Mar 20th 2009 8:40AM]

HAHA I couldnt help but laugh myself. Why would a redcoat want to watch american classics?

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Mar 20th 2009 1:31PM]

You know, it's funny, I made this joke when the British press were pissing and moaning about the US' gifts being lame... I said "yeah, they're really gonna be pissed when they get home and it won't play in their DVD player due to region coding!" To me it was a joke because I'm sure they can come up with region-free equipment... heh. oh well.

[ishism @ Mar 20th 2009 10:26PM]

Fock the Queen. And the Browns. Gordon and Mallok. I'm glad Obama returned the bust of that Empire loving Churchill.

[Ethan @ Mar 20th 2009 5:56AM]

That article (not this one, the source) sounds like a rubbish joke to me. No Dvd player sold in the last 5 years in the UK is incapable of playing region 1 DVDs.

[Neil @ Mar 20th 2009 7:13AM]

Almost all medium to high end DVD players are locked to Region 2 in the UK. It's mainly the cheap ones that are made region free (and even they are locked originally).

[Spawn_Xe @ Mar 20th 2009 7:50AM]

i cant remember the last time i saw a locked region 2 dvd player here

[TimmyRaa @ Mar 20th 2009 7:53AM]

+1

[CeeBee @ Mar 20th 2009 5:59AM]

Another nail in the coffin for optical media
Can we just have a moments silence for the billions of wasted hours trying to get your freakin
DVD-R/X/Y/Z/-/+ to work on your mates DVD player.
It all descended down from a technical laser/coating-whatever problem to
'Is your DVD attractive to the DVD player, even then it might recovering from a recent incompatabilty and not looking for any laser-pit relationships right now'

[pk @ Mar 20th 2009 6:18AM]

This is about companies' stupid DRM and craps, not about optical media. -_-"

[coolblue @ Mar 20th 2009 6:20AM]

However the vast majority of players need a hack to become multi-region. Some of those hacks are very easy (code entry) but they still do not play multi region out of the box.

[John B @ Mar 20th 2009 8:36AM]

Wow. You "download only" morons will go to any length to sound the death knell for physical media.

[Darrell @ Mar 20th 2009 9:31AM]

They're doing the same thing with digital. You can't buy certain things from online stores (iTunes for example) from other regions thanks to international licensing agreements. Its the same reason why dvds and blu-ray are region encoded, but its a bit dated since most major companies and many of the independents could sell their work internationally on their own anyway.

[m-p{3} @ Mar 21st 2009 11:13PM]

YOu'll find it funny when your DRM-riddled downloads are unusable if the company decide to close its doors.

[Sarig @ Mar 20th 2009 6:09AM]

Does engadget not now what purpose the dvd regions serve?

Say a dvd costs 20$ new.

Now you want to sell it in some poor third world country as well. Who there can afford to pay that price? No-one, so you set the price at 3$ instead.

And now you need a system to prevent people from buying up all the dvd's there, to resell them in richer countries.

[Aaron @ Mar 20th 2009 6:11AM]

I know that the British economy is doing badly but it's not quite a third world country yet.

[Hussain @ Mar 20th 2009 6:30AM]

So effectively you're saying we in the "Developed" world are getting ripped off because if the studios can afford to sell it for $3 why should we pay almost 7 times that.

Did anyone in the DRM industry consider that if we provide it for the same price everywhere we will increase our market penetration and abolish piracy because at $3 its not worth some guy in china ripping it off.

[LondonConsultant @ Mar 20th 2009 7:09AM]

@Aaron
Well, there are already rickshaws here in central London for tourists from Region 1...

[r3loaded @ Mar 20th 2009 7:18AM]

Yep, and they charge about 20 times as much as they do in India.

[choddo @ Mar 20th 2009 7:31AM]

So I can't go & buy a Region2 disk in Lesotho (where I expect they're not £12 each) and play it in a UK locked player?

Madness.

I fully expect Brown threw the lot in the bin and fired up some British classics like Sense and Sensibility, Four Weddings or Trainspotting anyway.

[Vanillacide @ Mar 20th 2009 7:43AM]

Does Sarig not know what purpose the DVD regions serve?

Say a DVD costs US$20 new.

Now you want to sell it in some European country as well. Who there can afford to pay that price? Everyone, so you set the price at US$30 instead.

And now you need a system to prevent people from buying up all the DVDs from USA, to resell them in European countries.

Some years later you come up with an excuse about emerging markets and lower prices, but you can gorge yourself on fat profits from Europeans first ... the rinse and repeat with Blu-ray.

[TimmyRaa @ Mar 20th 2009 7:56AM]

The dollar sign comes before the number.

[weg @ Mar 20th 2009 10:20AM]

@Hussain: No, we're not getting ripped off, we rip the 3rd world countries off. That's why they can't afford to pay 15 pounds for a DVD.

[digitallysick @ Mar 20th 2009 6:10AM]

best to buy cheap players from china, they will play about anything

[GB @ Mar 20th 2009 6:16AM]

Even Crysis? :P

[Mobius_1 @ Mar 20th 2009 6:58AM]

Yes. Even Crysis.

[Spawn_Xe @ Mar 20th 2009 7:50AM]

they even play betamax

[Samboini @ Mar 20th 2009 3:46PM]

Even the new format discussed in RvB?

[Greg Rice @ Mar 20th 2009 6:15AM]

When it comes to technology, there are very few times when living is Australia has its perks -this is one of them! Most players are sold region free and it is legal and quite often free to have locked players unlocked when purchasing.

[loocas @ Mar 20th 2009 8:07AM]

Then again, nobody gives a shit about Australia... ;)