RegionalRelease
ThoughtStorms Wiki
Corporate coding of the world into regions according to:
Release dates, Movie and DVD Region
"DVD-Video discs may be region coded to prevent eg a US disc played on a European player and vice versa. This allows titles to be distributed in different parts of the world at different times. A total of eight regions (also called locales) have been defined to cover all countries."
Despite this there is a lot of subregioning. This is why you will not find a film with subtitles in English while shopping 30km away in France. A quick look at a british Toy Story DVD shows me options for Norwegian, Danish and Greek - two countries who speak perfect English, one at the other corner of Europe.
Currency risk & HP Printer cartidges
Re: "Region Coding Electronics and Ink Cartridges", consider that this is truly about the effect of currency fluctuations on an international business. A company incurs expenses (R&D, manufacturing, etc.) in one currency, and sells in another. When the exchange rates change significantly between when the expenses are incurred and when the sale is made, the financial results of the company will also be significantly affected (sometimes positively, sometimes negatively). This creates instability in the stock price because fickle Wall St. analysts can't handle surprises (and may also lead to gray-market activities like re-importing product from a cheaper region of the world to sell in a more expensive one, but I don't know for sure about that). You may have a valid issue with respect to how the company should try to manage the effects of currency fluctuations, but I think the conspiracy theory about a one-time gouging of Europe to make a fast buck is a red herring. The only real solution to this might be truly dynamic, global pricing – which might work if HP only sold direct over the web, but real world sales channels consist of a web of retailers and resellers who cannot support it (a customer wants to know that a pen costs 1.49 whether he walks into 7-11 on Monday or Friday...)
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/01/18/explanationforregi.html
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