[jwr]

I think this comes from ossified committees making decisions. The concept of a world divided into "regions" is still strong in some people's minds, even though it stopped making any sense within the last two or three decades.

This idea of "regions" is infuriating if you happen to live in a non-first-class "region", meaning anything that is not the United States. Often you will be denied purchase, which is ridiculous in the context of discussions about "piracy".

Spotify has shown the right way to do it: just offer the stuff in a way that is convenient and let people pay for it. Their growth numbers speak for themselves.

[maccard]

> Spotify has shown the right way to do it: just offer the stuff in a way that is convenient and let people pay for it.

I don't think Spotify are a great example really. They're almost a 14 year old company, and last wuartet was the first time they were profitable. They've already stated they're expecting a loss this year. Is it sustainable?

I would also expect that we'll see a rift a la Netflix, over time we'll see different companies start to hold exclusives to their own streaming platform.

[autokad]

I'm not speaking of dvds specifically, but products in general including books, medicine, etc.

they still 'need' regions because they generally charge US customers more. more often then not, US has to pay cost + IP costs + margin, where as people in say India pay cost + margin.

I think this remains true for dvd/movies. Think about it, I heard the cost of a movie ticket for a hollywood movie is about 1$ in pakistan.

I'm in favor of getting rid of regions, and outlawing the practice of making mostly US consumers pay the bill for IP costs illegal, but until that happens they 'need' regions. how else are they going to charge people in china 2$ and people in the US 20$.

[drdaeman]

> This idea of "regions" is infuriating > Spotify has shown the right way to do it

Sorry but no. Spotify is not available anywhere but in a few selected regions.

[Salgat]

Regions make complete sense if people in certain countries are making a few hundred dollars a month. Suddenly that $20 movie is over 5% of their monthly income.