Let’s ban region-locking
Cheesemeister , NeoGAF forum member and Japanese translator has started a petition to ask the White House to ban region-locking in games, movies, software, and Internet traffic handling.
As you may know, region-locking is the practice of restricting game consoles to one specific country or region and only that specific country or region, and has been criticized by gamers for decades now. So, essentially, if a console is region-locked you can’t use it to play imports. Which really sucks for Americans who are into Japanese games and vice versa.
But wouldn’t this be global issue involving more than the U.S.? Cheesemeister writes:
“Ultimately, there’d have to be bilateral legislative action, but you have to start somewhere. A US-side ban on region-locking would require that products sold in the US (not to) prevent you from playing imported digital media.”
The official petition reads as follows:
WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:
Ban the use of region-locking in games, movies, software, and Internet traffic handling.
We live in a globally-interconnected, digital society. Information about products and services available in other countries can be easily accessed, generating demand. However, the implementation of region locks prevent consumers from exercising their right to choose to import digital goods and services from abroad, whether in the form of physical media or purely as data.
Preventing the sales of books across borders would be absurd, yet this happens regularly with digital media. Neither the assumption of consumers’ language abilities nor the lack of coordinated international publishing should strip consumers of their right to choose their purchases. Electronic devices designed to run or display certain types of media ought not to intentionally refuse to function, and regulation is needed.
The petition still needs to get a lot of signatures by February 15, 2013 to reach its goal of 100,000 so don’t forget to sign on the following link: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/ban-use-region-locking-games-movies-software-and-internet-traffic-handling/XGzyvcVJ and be sure to follow @EndRegionLock on Twitter for more info and to know the progress of the petition! Let us know here if you’re going to sign it!
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