We found this out that Warner's and other DVD producers are trying to CONTROL the sale of DVD's even more strictly. Talk about Big Brother. One side effect I can see is that it will put people off buying DVD's from them and build up bad will when they should be building up good will amongst consumers. Read on to find out the whole story.

The new advanced approach may render some R1 discs unplayable on existing Multiregion players. Known discs to include this technology are The Perfect Storm and Columbia Tristar's The Patriot. Regional Code Enhancement (RCE) Program WHV will start a program to enhance the capabilities of the regional code specification for DVD beginning in October.

This program is a response to the unauthorized practice of altering DVD video hardware players so that they bypass the region code requirements for DVD. This is happening on a more frequent basis in many territories, and retailers are openly marketing these non-complying players with names such as “region free” and “multi zone”.

The Technology – The enhancement is an additional imbedded code (RCE – Regional Code Enhancement) on the DVD disc that makes the current regional coding more robust. How It Works – In simple language, the RCE allows the disc to detect if a hardware player is region specific (as required by the CSS licensing agreement), or if it has been manufactured or altered in the market to be “region free”. If the player is “region free” the RCE will not allow the disc to play the program material.

It will instead display a message on the television advising the consumer that the machine is not authorized to play this disc. The actual wording will be as follows: THIS DVD PLAYER MAY HAVE BEEN ALTERED AND IS UNABLE TO PLAY THIS DISC THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS DISC DVD PLAYERS AND DISCS ARE DESIGNED TO WORK IN CERTAIN REGIONS THIS DISC IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH THIS PLAYER PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL RETAILER OR PLAYER MANUFACTURER FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION WE APOLOGIZE FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE"

WHV will start applying the RCE to discs scheduled for release in the U.S. market beginning in late October. At this time, the RCE will only be applied to Region 1 versions of titles. At least one other studio (Columbia TriStar) will also be releasing discs with the RCE during the 4th quarter.

The program has two objectives. (1) Discourage the export of region 1 discs to other regions and (2) discourage the sale of DVD video hardware that has been modified to “region free”. WHV Sales personnel should immediately begin to communicate this program to key retailers in their respective territories.

It is especially important to focus on retailers selling product online, and any account, which may be exporting products outside Region 1. With the online retailers, we must discuss the need to properly notify consumers outside the region 1 territories that the disc may not play in their player before the disc is purchased. The customer dissatisfaction and returns risk is significant if this is not done. At this time there is no plan to send out a press release on this program. This document should be used to review the program with all U.S. accounts.