Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
Region free players are not common in the US, but there are usually cheap players on the market where the ability to use a hidden menu to make them region free is will documented. But I believe it's also not a difficult task to make your computer play region free DVDs...
That said, we won't know if these discs are region free until they come out... and it probably hurts more than it helps to speculate at this point. My understanding is that when a company signs a contract to distribute a show or movie they promise to do whatever they can to restrict it to the region they're paying for. In this case, VEI has the North American distribution rights and not overseas rights... so theoretically they /should/ region lock it.
... but in lots of cases with cult things like Academy that aren't likely to appear elsewhere, companies conveniently "forget" to lock the discs and no one really cares/notices. So lets just cross our fingers and we'll see when we see. (Similarly, they can't TELL us this is going to happen because that would be a huge breach of contract.)
Also: the fact that Universal is restoring these episodes for this release means that a German company could much more easily license the release already--the grunt work is already done. So if these are region locked and it's a problem for you, start pressuring your local DVD producers.
That said, we won't know if these discs are region free until they come out... and it probably hurts more than it helps to speculate at this point. My understanding is that when a company signs a contract to distribute a show or movie they promise to do whatever they can to restrict it to the region they're paying for. In this case, VEI has the North American distribution rights and not overseas rights... so theoretically they /should/ region lock it.
... but in lots of cases with cult things like Academy that aren't likely to appear elsewhere, companies conveniently "forget" to lock the discs and no one really cares/notices. So lets just cross our fingers and we'll see when we see. (Similarly, they can't TELL us this is going to happen because that would be a huge breach of contract.)
Also: the fact that Universal is restoring these episodes for this release means that a German company could much more easily license the release already--the grunt work is already done. So if these are region locked and it's a problem for you, start pressuring your local DVD producers.
