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Pretend for a minute you run Kino, the small but scrappy independent label that specializes in silent films and the occasional American indie film. You are going to release Metropolis on Blu-ray. You get a phone call from a well-regarded UK distributor who says, "Hey, we are also releasing Metropolis on Blu-ray, in a beautifully-designed package with the same extras you have plus an exclusive commentary and a fat booklet. And if you make your Blu-ray region-free, we are going to make our Blu-ray region free. If you make yours region A, we'll make ours region B." What would you do?

The ideal answer to this question would be, "Step up my game and make my Blu-ray edition as good as or even better than the UK version and still release it region-free (and give away a t-shirt AND a coffee mug with each purchase)," but we all know that's not how Kino rolls. Most of their customers are ignorant of region coding. And those for whom it is an issue have probably already bought a Sherwood in anticipation of this release (as well as other BFI, MoC, and Studio Canal region B exclusives). Kino's already lost customers to MoC on this release, now imagine if both Blu-ray releases were region-free.

According to Nick's comments, that doesn't seem to be how it's played out. More like, "we have released anything we wanted to region free, but now that there is a high profile title that these guys are releasing at the same time as us, we'll insist that they region-lock. Seems to me that MoC would have been just fine with both companies releasing region-free products, but Kino insisted that MoC lock theirs, so MoC insisted on the reciprocation.

Mmm, you're probably closer to the truth than I, but it still stands to reason that Kino is region locking (and insisting on MoC region locking in return) in order to protect their business from MoC's superior release.

Didn't Australia rule that region-locking was a form of monopoly? I don't see any particular reason that locking out of a fear of competition should be a move I have sympathy with, especially when they're happy to compete when they're the ones with a superior product.

If Kino had made theirs better, with a different commentary and additional features, they might have gotten double buys. As is, I'm still going to buy their products- I'm excited for Fantomas and Sherlock Jr- but I'm certainly not going to have any brand loyalty towards them, the way I do Criterion, MoC, or even BFI.

Region-locking is a form of monopoly. The big gaping hole in the region coding argument is that Region B = 50 countries in Europe (all different licencing territories completely 'unprotected' from each other within Region B)......... whereas Region A = The Americas.

That one single point makes everything fall apart. All region coding does is protect America/Hollywood from imports -- that's the crux. The sooner the EU get on this and outlaw it the better, I don't think anyone really gives a shit though.

Meanwhile, we'll be pushing region-free players at every turn. This industry is so frustrating and self-defeating sometimes. Roll on a non-proprietary, multi-fps, Quicktime based format in 4k.

I'm looking forward to the BFI releasing BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN region free on BD!

Matt wrote:Pretend for a minute you run Kino, the small but scrappy independent label that specializes in silent films and the occasional American indie film. You are going to release Metropolis on Blu-ray. You get a phone call from a well-regarded UK distributor who says, "Hey, we are also releasing Metropolis on Blu-ray, in a beautifully-designed package with the same extras you have plus an exclusive commentary and a fat booklet. And if you make your Blu-ray region-free, we are going to make our Blu-ray region free. If you make yours region A, we'll make ours region B." What would you do?

I somehow have trouble picturing Kino as the underdog in this, considering that they service the most lucrative market; I would venture the hypothesis that in many parts of Europe, home video equipment like DVD and BR players are much less prevalent than in North America; which means that the theoretical Region B market is in practice rather smaller. Furthermore, even for region-free releases, relatively few North-American viewers will look for products outside of the usual outlets like Amazon or their local store, where the Kino line might be the available, but certainly not the MoC one.

And anyway, does it not stand to reason that when you have 2 different issues of the same title in 2 different markets, each will indeed be region-locked because the original rights-holder wishes it so? I think contractual discussions of the sort raised in this thread are most likely to happen between licensor and licensee, rather than between the two DVD publishers.

I've always found it hypocritical that companies who trade at an international level go out of their way to create barriers to prevent their customers doing the same.

Western governments, who apparently support capitalism and free trade, should have squashed region coding years ago, but with the honourable exception of Australia nothing's been done. I wonder why? Apathy, ignorance or are politicians scared to take on big media companies?

I ordered the Steelbook via the Pre-Order-Special but never received an e-mail to choose the size of the T-shirt. What can I do?

Email [email protected]

You'll tend to find a trend that the more people/companies claim to uphold/prosper under 'free market' principles, the more they tend to despise them and do anything to undermine them.

Florinaldo wrote:I somehow have trouble picturing Kino as the underdog in this, considering that they service the most lucrative market;

This is exactly why Kino is the underdog in that scenario, they would lose much more than MoC with both going region free.

But we all do not know the deal structure and the contracts (except MoC employees of course), but I hope in the sake of an open market and for the best interest of the film lovers and buyers, that MoC has gained some rights or other advantages through their powerful situation in comparision to Kino at the release of Metropolis.

david hare wrote:Rossy and Matrix, dont start getting epiphanic about Australia and idealism.

A non Governmental agency with totally no power (a Quango) made a "finding" years ago that Region coding was anti-competitive.
Nothing ever came of it, because 13 plus years of government in OZ from both sides of politics never got around to enshrining it in law, because, Um, err, Polygram and Sony and UNi Vivendi and the socalled local Muso and film Unions, and the various mafia who run the movie biz here, "persuaded" the governmant with kickbacks and payoff that this was all wrong because it denied intellectual fucking property rights!!! TO WHOM??? - to Sony, Polygram, Universal Vivendi etc?? SO there is nothing whatsoever to take solace from this tinpot of a country.

David, I don't know that I agree that nothing ever came of it - at least in Australia you can buy any DVD player and be pretty much guaranteed that it will play DVDs from any region. Perhaps there's no legal requirement, but it has come about anyway. In the early days of DVD in Oz, people were paying extra to have third party mods done by retailers....

Unfortunately, the same situation has not applied to bluray, I guess because of the fact that there was nothing in law to stop region coding of blurays, and whatever Quango was pushing the issue for DVDs had lost interest - or as you suggest, payoffs to govt from industry. So I had to spend $200 on a region-free mod for my bluray player...

Saw the Metropolis resto with my other half yesterday but the film left me rather cold, even allowing for the fact that the reinserted 25 minutes really do make for a much smoother and richer experience. While the film itself has done nothing to change my preference of Lang's American films over his German pictures, I wanted to pass on that many scenes in this resto struck me as impressively looking as the City Girl print MoC utilised for their Blu (the reinserted shots and sequences obviously excluded). If you love Metropolis, you're in for a treat with the October release..

http://www.alldayentertainment.com/?ent ... 8c20117bc8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Kalat on (among other things) the process of recording the commentary for Metropolis.

According A.O. Scott, the restored footage makes Lang's wit much more apparent.

The sublimity is familiar to anyone who remembers the factory maw swallowing and disgorging workers, or the apotheosis of Maria, the robot-idol-prophet-sex-symbol played by the Weimar bombshell Brigitte Helm. Lang’s wit is less often remarked upon, but it is vividly present in a newly added scene in which two characters grapple in front of a bank of elevators traveling up and down behind them, with the doors open and their passengers caught in poses of studied nonchalance.

Blu-ray screen grabs via twitter.
Very nice indeed...

According to the Beaver, the Kino BD is codefree...

Didn't Kino ask MoC to region-code their version? If they did, it's quite two-faced to say the least to then release their own Blu region-free.

Just to recap this particular region locking situation:

peerpee wrote:(Posted in the LA PLANETE SAUVAGE thread, but more relevant here):

re: METROPOLIS on BD.

The whole "region coding protects territories" myth is a tough nut to crack. We'll be talking to as many licencees as possible to work out a way forward. For example, the French licencee MK2 don't region encode their releases.

We've found that licensors are happy with whatever the licencees are happy with collectively. If licencees complain, the licensor steps in and points to the contract.

At the moment, it's Kino who are suggesting we all region encode. Despite them releasing THE GENERAL on BD without region coding. So, with all respect to them, they've opted for a hypocritical "whatever suits Kino" approach to BD region encoding - which obviously looks ridiculous.

manicsounds wrote:And you know what will be the irony? Kino will most likely release theirs Region Free....

peerpee wrote:We have it in writing that they won't.

This is some egregious bullshit right here.

Now that Kino's shown it's true colours does this mean that future pressings of the MOC will be R0, or is there legal paperwork needed to make that a reality?

If this is true, that's a pretty scummy move, especially when you consider MoC's stated position on the matter. Here's hoping MoC has contractual recourse from the licensor. For my part, I've suddenly lost all desire to give Kino any more of my custom.

zedz wrote:If this is true, that's a pretty scummy move, especially when you consider MoC's stated position on the matter. Here's hoping MoC has contractual recourse from the licensor. For my part, I've suddenly lost all desire to give Kino any more of my custom.

The frustrating thing is, I'm still going to buy things from them- this is crappy, but on the other hand I want the Sherlock Jr blu. I just wish they'd made it clear they were going to pull this earlier, because at this point I'm 99% sure my pre-ordered MoC Metropolis blu is going to be Region B locked and it's too late to change it.

It's also worth considering whether the Kino reviews so far relate to a check disc or to the finished product - it's been known before for check discs not to match in the past (as MichaelB has previously mentioned in the Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush thread from the BFI section).

I hope very much that MoC is able to recoup some of the obvious losses they'll suffer from this blatant contractual violation by Kino. Further, I also hope this keeps Kino from insisting any more that MoC implement region coding. The forthcoming MoC disc is clearly the better package, and could have done HUGE business for them in the US. I've got a region free player do I don't have to miss out on anything, but I'd much rather everyone else have the same option I do, thereby allowing a company that consistently does quality work the resources to continue (and expand) their efforts. This is absurd.

and it is probably far too late for MoC to make their disc region-free, right?