Are Blu-ray Region Codes Just ‘Defensive Posturing’ From Movie Studios?

Despite the fact we live in a world where you can download a film in a matter of minutes depending on your internet connection, the movie studios still insist on having region codes as part of the specification for DVD and Blu-ray discs. But why?

Wired asked this very question of all the movie studios and got a resounding “No comment” response. But Screen Digest analyst Tom Adams told Wired that the idea of having the region locking would help the studio executives sleep well at night:

“Whether or not the codes are there,” he says, “the idea that they are is probably a good thing from the studios’ point of view.”

Given that Wired says that up to 70 per cent of Blu-ray discs don’t actually have any region locking on them, it sounds like a pretty ridiculous safety blanket in this day and age. But then again, up until recently it was illegal to create a backup of your own DVDs for security purposes…

[Wired]