Emachines M6810 DVD Region Code Protection - Unlocking?

[gtd2000]

I'm overseas at the moment and watching Region 2 DVDs - obviously I also have Region 1 DVDs as well.

I'm now in a situation where I have one or two changes left in the drive (not the software) for Region selection.

How do I reset this to 5 again - or even better - how do I get rid of this ridiculous protection for good?

I've done this previously in years gone by with internal desktop DVD drives but I'm not so sure about the notebook versions...

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance etc. 🙂

 

[thirdlegstump]

That's illegal bro.

 

[gtd2000]

Illegal?

Well I've done it on desktop drives before and the legality is not my concern in the least.

What legal system are you referring to - I'm in Israel as I type this - are they going to be hunting me down for removing the region code protection? I'll be using the notebook in the UK next week..etc.

As far as I am aware it is not illegal to change the region code settings - it is just some stupid agreement that the DVD manufacturers came up with in the dim and distant past to protect the move industry from piracy due to the different timings of movie/DVD releases globally.

Case in point - I bought a Samsung 909K DVD player that was region code locked - Samsung (not in the USA) told me that they could change the region protection as a customer service (by customer request)free of charge but they had to sell the system region code locked.

At the end of the day I'm not entirely bothered about "removal" of region protection - I just want to have the ability to make unlimited changes between region 1 and 2 DVDs

I assume I will be required to reflash the drive like in the old days then...

 

[Matthias99]

Illegal?

Under the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act), it is currently illegal in the United States to circumvent any type of encryption or content-protection system, including region-coding of DVD players. Personally, I think major portions of this law may be struck down at some point in the future (most of it has never been challenged in court, and much of it, IMO, violates principles of fair use), but for the moment, that's the situation.

The mods here at AT generally don't like people to be discussing how to do things that are illegal in the US, since it can get the site in trouble.

 

[gtd2000]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Illegal?

Under the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act), it is currently illegal in the United States to circumvent any type of encryption or content-protection system, including region-coding of DVD players. Personally, I think major portions of this law may be struck down at some point in the future (most of it has never been challenged in court, and much of it, IMO, violates principles of fair use), but for the moment, that's the situation.

The mods here at AT generally don't like people to be discussing how to do things that are illegal in the US, since it can get the site in trouble.

Well that's my point entirely - I'm not in the USA, nor am I an American Citizen.

American laws do not apply to me in this instance.

Hence, it is not illegal as I see it.

Actually I did a quick search on the net to see what they say about the law and region code hacking.

Disclaimer
Use these modifications at your own risk! Data TestLab, Jozef Schildermans bvba nor anyone involved in the maintenance of this page is responsible for any damages that might result from applying one or more of these patches. However, modifying your player is not illegal. There are no laws against it, at least not in Europe. In the USA the US Digital Millenium Copyright Act possibly forbids defeating region coding. I am not sure, so please check with your local government before using any of these patches. Author Jim Taylor says on this matter: "It's likely that region coding is not covered by the circumvention clause in the DMCA, since region coding protects distribution rights but not copyrights, but it's still not clear at present." (e-mail interview 06/22/99)

 

[OCNewbie]

Yeah, it'd be like me telling someone in Amsterdam how to roll a joint and where to buy some good stuff right?

 

[gtd2000]

Originally posted by: OCNewbie
Yeah, it'd be like me telling someone in Amsterdam how to roll a joint and where to buy some good stuff right?

That's not a bad analogy, assuming that they were in Holland 😉

As it is, I am not try to circumvent encryption or copyright protection systems - I can change the region code setting 5 times (perfectly legally!!) - there is no law against changing the region code - hence I am not breaking any laws.

I'm not asking for illegal information here.

If I lock up the region code all I would do (in theory) is send the unit back to Emachines/Gateway to reset the code.

So does this suggest that Emachines/Gateway or any other supplier is breaking the law in order to do this....highly unlikely 😉

So enough about legal issues - if it was "illegal" the analogy would be that you could steal a car 5 times before it become a crime....😉

 

[imported_Phil]

Originally posted by: gtd2000
I'm not asking for illegal information here.

But you are asking for information from a US-based forum, and the DCMA is for the USA. So while it may not be illegal in other countries, you're unlikely to get any information here as the moderators of the site don't particularly want lawyers to come knocking regarding information on how to remove region coding from consumer electronics.

 

[Cassius105]

i use a program called "DVD Region Master"

do a google for it

unfortunatly if you want it for free its only a 15 day trial

you can get around the trial period but i cant post how here so ill leave you to figure that out 😛

 

[gtd2000]

Originally posted by: Dopefiend

But you are asking for information from a US-based forum, and the DCMA is for the USA. So while it may not be illegal in other countries, you're unlikely to get any information here as the moderators of the site don't particularly want lawyers to come knocking regarding information on how to remove region coding from consumer electronics.

I'm not asking for illegal information at all even in the USA...

The region code protection is something that the "manufacturers" have signed up to in an "agreement".

Region code settings can be changed by the "end user".

If you can demonstrate with a reliable source that "changing" or "resetting" the region code is in fact illegal thats fine.

 

[gtd2000]

Originally posted by: Cassius105
i use a program called "DVD Region Master"

do a google for it

unfortunatly if you want it for free its only a 15 day trial

you can get around the trial period but i cant post how here so ill leave you to figure that out 😛

I hear ya 😉

I'll just get some firmware I think at the end of the day though...which does not circumvent encryption or copyright laws...

 

[gtd2000]

Is It Legal to Bypass the Codes?

Since DVD regional coding ? also known as "zone locking" ? exists merely for marketing purposes, and has nothing to do with copyright or copy protection, most people compare "breaking the codes" to reading a German book in Australia, Britain, the US or another English-speaking country. If you legally obtained either the book or the DVD, it shouldn't matter where you read it or view it. We're not talking about making commercial copies, defeating copy guards or anything else for distribution purposes that would violate copyright laws. We just want to watch a video that we legally obtained in the first place. But it is important to point out that no court decision has established either that regional coding might be an illegal "restraint of trade" or that it may be legal to defeat the regional DVD codes.

Note: Changing the code setting on a DVD-ROM drive is not only possible, but also perfectly legal.

Some DVD vendors (online or otherwise) may not be willing to ship a DVD title to a country with a regional code that is different than the disk. Since this is a decision made by each vendor, you will need to check on a particular vendor's shipping policy.

Any counter arguement?

Source: Text

On a lighter note you have to laugh at all of you screaming about not being able to post information on anandtech that you consider "might" be illegal.

The two adverts at the top of my screen (via Anandtech) right now are for Region Free DVD Players...lol

World Import
&
Text

😉

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: gtd2000

Is It Legal to Bypass the Codes?

Since DVD regional coding ? also known as "zone locking" ? exists merely for marketing purposes, and has nothing to do with copyright or copy protection, most people compare "breaking the codes" to reading a German book in Australia, Britain, the US or another English-speaking country. If you legally obtained either the book or the DVD, it shouldn't matter where you read it or view it. We're not talking about making commercial copies, defeating copy guards or anything else for distribution purposes that would violate copyright laws. We just want to watch a video that we legally obtained in the first place. But it is important to point out that no court decision has established either that regional coding might be an illegal "restraint of trade" or that it may be legal to defeat the regional DVD codes.

Note: Changing the code setting on a DVD-ROM drive is not only possible, but also perfectly legal.

Some DVD vendors (online or otherwise) may not be willing to ship a DVD title to a country with a regional code that is different than the disk. Since this is a decision made by each vendor, you will need to check on a particular vendor's shipping policy.

Any counter arguement?

(emphasis added)

Also from that site:

Note: None of the information on this page should be construed as legal advice. We are merely pointing out the regional code situation, as it applies to those who would like to view foreign films on DVD. Regional codes have nothing to do with the obviously illegal practice of breaking the DVD protection codes designed to prevent illegal digital copying for distribution.

Technically, right now, it is illegal in the US to bypass region coding on a DVD player. But nobody has challenged this in court, nor, as far as I know, has anybody been prosecuted for attempting to do so or for disseminating information on doing so.

On a lighter note you have to laugh at all of you screaming about not being able to post information on anandtech that you consider "might" be illegal.

Well, I'm not happy about it, but it's not legal (random internet sources notwithstanding). And AT does not really tolerate people discussing things that are illegal in the US.

The two adverts at the top of my screen (via Anandtech) right now are for Region Free DVD Players...lol

That, I have to say, is pretty funny. 😛

Though, technically, as long as the player was manufactured and sold legally (but that's a pretty big question; many of these are grey-market models not made for US distribution, and possibly produced without a proper license), it should be fine to own a region-free player. It's only breaking the region coding on an existing player that's illegal!

 

[gtd2000]

I have no idea of the validity of this site but here are some excerpts:

Why do we have region codes?
Region codes appear originally to have been proposed to prevent DVDs appearing in a market where movies were still being shown. For instance, if a film opened in the U.S. first, the DVDs might appear six months later - but the film might open later in other markets overseas after the DVDs were released in the U.S. market. With the easy access of goods over the Internet, it was decided that there should be a splitting of markets into protected zones. However, there are a number of problems if this was in fact the intention, for there are better solutions to this problem. The market for DVDs is overwhelmingly that of movies that are past the original theater showings in all countries, yet the consumer is prevented from watching these unless they have a player that has the same region coding. It would have been quite simple to create a system which was timestamped, and allowed the encoding to prevent people from viewing it until perhaps a year had lapsed after the first release of the film, thus allowing older movies to be seen on all players. It thus appears that region encoding was in fact an attempt to erect trade barriers that are in the interests of all sellers and against the interests of all consumers, rather than to protect merely the interests of theaters.

Is region encoding a matter of law?
Regional encoding is not mandatory or required by law, but is optional for all manufacturers. Thus region-free discs or "Region 0" discs have been becoming more and more common.

Is it illegal to operate a region-free DVD player?
It is not illegal - the region encodings are a matter of trade agreements rather than regulation or law.

Can you buy region-free DVD players?
Yes, since they are quite legal there is no problem buying one, and there is a thriving industry here. See our hardware page for DVD players that fill the requirements listed below.

Source

I've now read the DCMA and see no mention of changing or resetting the region code of the player - I can see that they mention circumventing the CSS and DVD (disk) region code - but NOT the player code.

If it was illegal - why do I get 5 choices and then if it goes past that number of 5 choices I can have it reset by the vendor? ....Then I can change the region code a further 5 times etc. etc. and send it back once more.

 

[gtd2000]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: gtd2000
Also from that site:

Note: None of the information on this page should be construed as legal advice. We are merely pointing out the regional code situation, as it applies to those who would like to view foreign films on DVD. Regional codes have nothing to do with the obviously illegal practice of breaking the DVD protection codes designed to prevent illegal digital copying for distribution.

Thats the coding of the disk - not the player. The rest is just a standard disclaimer.

 

[Matthias99]

I've now read the DCMA (sic)and see no mention of changing or resetting the region code of the player - I can see that they mention circumventing the CSS and DVD (disk) region code - but NOT the player code.

It's the "DMCA", not "DCMA".

Link -- text of the DMCA

Sec. 1201. Circumvention of copyright protection systems

`(a) VIOLATIONS REGARDING CIRCUMVENTION OF TECHNOLOGICAL MEASURES- (1)(A) No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title. The prohibition contained in the preceding sentence shall take effect at the end of the 2-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this chapter.

...

`(2) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that--

`(A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title;

`(B) has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title; or

`(C) is marketed by that person or another acting in concert with that person with that person's knowledge for use in circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.

`(3) As used in this subsection--

`(A) to `circumvent a technological measure' means to descramble a scrambled work, to decrypt an encrypted work, or otherwise to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner; and

`(B) a technological measure `effectively controls access to a work' if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, requires the application of information, or a process or a treatment, with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain access to the work.

`(b) ADDITIONAL VIOLATIONS- (1) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that--

`(A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing protection afforded by a technological measure that effectively protects a right of a copyright owner under this title in a work or a portion thereof;

`(B) has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent protection afforded by a technological measure that effectively protects a right of a copyright owner under this title in a work or a portion thereof; or

`(C) is marketed by that person or another acting in concert with that person with that person's knowledge for use in circumventing protection afforded by a technological measure that effectively protects a right of a copyright owner under this title in a work or a portion thereof.

`(2) As used in this subsection--

`(A) to `circumvent protection afforded by a technological measure' means avoiding, bypassing, removing, deactivating, or otherwise impairing a technological measure; and

`(B) a technological measure `effectively protects a right of a copyright owner under this title' if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, prevents, restricts, or otherwise limits the exercise of a right of a copyright owner under this title.

It is, at best, unclear if region coding falls under this. One could certainly argue (and the movie companies will, if this is brought to court) that it is a 'technological measure that effectively controls access to the work'.

If it was illegal - why do I get 5 choices and then if it goes past that number of 5 choices I can have it reset by the vendor? ....Then I can change the region code a further 5 times etc. etc. and send it back once more.

It's a compromise so that you can move from one region to another without needing to buy a new DVD player. This feature is NOT intended to let you import DVDs from the US and watch them in Europe before they're released there.

 

[gtd2000]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Sec. 1201. Circumvention of copyright protection systems

`(a) VIOLATIONS REGARDING CIRCUMVENTION OF TECHNOLOGICAL MEASURES- (1)(A) No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title. The prohibition contained in the preceding sentence shall take effect at the end of the 2-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this chapter.

Agreed - this is circumvention of COPYRIGHT protection systems - the region code of the DVD player does not protect the copyright of the material. Or at least I don't see how it protects the copyright - unless copyright pertains to the exclusive distribution of media through a regional agent?

It is, at best, unclear if region coding falls under this. One could certainly argue (and the movie companies will, if this is brought to court) that it is a 'technological measure that effectively controls access to the work'.

I think "unclear" is an understatement actually - if the region zone = copyright protection it might be more clear. The region zone as I see it, is not copyright protection - it is merely a marketing strategy.

If it was illegal - why do I get 5 choices and then if it goes past that number of 5 choices I can have it reset by the vendor? ....Then I can change the region code a further 5 times etc. etc. and send it back once more.

It's a compromise so that you can move from one region to another without needing to buy a new DVD player. This feature is NOT intended to let you import DVDs from the US and watch them in Europe before they're released there.

I would contend that if it was illegal to change the region code and have the ability to play disks from outside your geographical "zone" then you would not be allowed to change the region code even once.

I don't "import" disks from the USA either - I work globally and buy DVDs or rent/borrow DVDs wherever I am based.
The whole idea of the inflexible region zone would in fact encourage international travellers to purchase unlicensed, region free disks at the end of the day 😉
But to go back to basics, the whole idea of the region code is simply to offset loss of revenue for movie tickets (read film studios) due to earlier US releases of DVDs - as we all know, they are closing the gap more and more as time goes on.

There must be some lawyer types on here that pick up on this thread.....

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: gtd2000

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Sec. 1201. Circumvention of copyright protection systems

`(a) VIOLATIONS REGARDING CIRCUMVENTION OF TECHNOLOGICAL MEASURES- (1)(A) No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title. The prohibition contained in the preceding sentence shall take effect at the end of the 2-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this chapter.

Agreed - this is circumvention of COPYRIGHT protection systems - the region code of the DVD player does not protect the copyright of the material. Or at least I don't see how it protects the copyright - unless copyright pertains to the exclusive distribution of media through a regional agent?

Copyright does generally pertain to distribution (that is, you technically cannot distribute copyrighted works without the consent of the copyright holder). I am NOT a lawyer (let alone a copyright lawyer), and I could not tell you how 'region coding' *specificially* interacts with copyright law. However, it seems clear that the *intention* of the region coding on DVDs is to control distribution.

If it was illegal - why do I get 5 choices and then if it goes past that number of 5 choices I can have it reset by the vendor? ....Then I can change the region code a further 5 times etc. etc. and send it back once more.

It's a compromise so that you can move from one region to another without needing to buy a new DVD player. This feature is NOT intended to let you import DVDs from the US and watch them in Europe before they're released there.

I would contend that if it was illegal to change the region code and have the ability to play disks from outside your geographical "zone" then you would not be allowed to change the region code even once.

It's not illegal to "change" it, since the manufacturer *supports* changing it, and includes a (secure) mechanism for doing so a limited number of times. What's apparently not allowed is completely bypassing the mechanism (ie, making your player region-free). This has not been challenged in court -- but until it is, realistically, it is 'illegal' in the US.

I don't "import" disks from the USA either - I work globally and buy DVDs or rent/borrow DVDs wherever I am based.
The whole idea of the inflexible region zone would in fact encourage international travellers to purchase unlicensed, region free disks at the end of the day 😉
But to go back to basics, the whole idea of the region code is simply to offset loss of revenue for movie tickets (read film studios) due to earlier US releases of DVDs - as we all know, they are closing the gap more and more as time goes on.

There must be some lawyer types on here that pick up on this thread.....

I agree the whole system is flawed, because it does nothing to stop pirates (who just stamp region-free copies, and of course region-free players are now widely available). However, just because the system is flawed does not make ignoring it legal.

Edit: Fixing mangled quotations. Please readd the [ /Q ] tag if you cut a quotation in the middle.

 

[gtd2000]

Well at the end of the day it turns out there is a LiteOn tool here that supposedly takes all my troubles away 😉