It’s something that has annoyed me for quite a while. Like having nowhere to watch certain DBS movies that would already be on streaming services that I have, but because I live in America it doesn’t exist there
In: 11
The TLDR answer is money.
The full answer is this:
Different countries have different media laws, and cultural sensitivities. It costs money to get someone who understands those laws to navigate them for you, and ensure the media is within the cultural sensitivities of the market. There was a time before the internet where distribution of products had to come through official channels, and strict oversight went into localization to the point where major companies would start subsidiaries in their market (Nintendo of America being an example).
In the modern world, that has been shrunk by this technology, region locks have become a standard method for inadvertently running afoul of other countries laws due to (digitally distributed) products inadvertently ending up in places where their existence or contents might constitute a legal or cultural liability for a company.
A region lock tells governments a product was not intended to be consumed outside of the region it was built in compliance to laws for, and that the company has made a good faith effort to avoid any problems. It tells consumers they’re getting a product “as is” and with “no warrantee expressed or impaled” meaning no consumer protection applies (and no money can be lost by enforcement of local consumer protection laws).
When region locks are easy to bypass, that is usually by design and the very act usually constitutes a violation of a company’s user policy. A policy violation that allows them to terminate any implied relationship without any other cause. Another way it frees them of liability.
Latest Answers