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(tämä
sivu suomeksi)
From September 2001
HiFi Lehti/Finland
(For
Part I/Osa I - click
here)
DVD
Players and "Guarantees"
'Meeting reasonable
expectations' -- this concept is the basis of recent
consumer legislation throughout the Western world -- and has
been a foundation of Finnish law for many
years.
Thus, when one
purchases a DVD player, the principle of the English common
law's 'Reasonable Man' should certainly apply. Let's say
your friend from New York brings a DVD disk with a recent
movie to Finland. You invite him over, make popcorn and sit
down to watch and instead get greeted by a screen telling
that this disk cannot be played as it is from a 'different
region.' No 'reasonable' person would consider this proper -
especially when they find out that this rejection has been
totally contrived and is not attributable to any inherent
technical differences between the USA and
Finland.
A recent discussion
with Erik Mickwitz (Finnish Consumer Ombudsman),gives some
credence to the fact that such artificial tampering with DVD
codes by manufacturers, may not only be in violation of the
'reasonable expectations' concept but also in conflict with
the legal foundations of 'free trade,' particularly in the
EU. There are supposedly some challenges to 'region coding'
originating in various countries - and may actually be
illegal in some anyhow.
But, as many know,
it is possible to modify most DVD players - via codes given
through the remote control unit or an IC chip added to the
'code' circuitry. Probably to mollify the movie studios, DVD
manufacturers have tried to convince the consumer that a
defective DVD player will not be repaired without charge if
it is found that the DVD player will play different region
DVD disks than what were intended by the manufacturer. One
manufacturer even told me that changing the code system by
the remotecontrol was already enough to void any
guarantee!
It should be said
at this point that a 'guarantee,' according to Finnish law,
is only an extra benefit to the consumer making it easier
for the consumer to return goods for repair, replacement or
refund (if repair or replacement not possible). Finnish law
states that the liability for products with manufacturing
defects is WITHOUT any time limit! For example, if your car
has a leaky clutch gasket that the automobile industry is
normally expecting to last a lifetime or at least hundreds
of thousands of kilometres and this leak happens in four
years -- one year after the 'guarantee' of three years - you
have a good chance of making a case that it should be
repaired without charge if you have only driven 70-80,000
kilometers.
In any case, it is
completely against all technical understanding that the
playing of a Humphrey Bogart DVD from New York was the
reason that the laser pick-up didn't work or the disk motor
burned. The manufacturer should have to show that quite
explicitly if they think so. Indeed, the modification of ANY
product, that the manufacturer cannot show has been the
cause of a defect, is perfectly acceptable. For example,
people have been told that if they open their computer and
add extra memory that failure of their hard disk will not, a
priori, be handled as a manufacturing defect.
This, according to
Erik Mickwitz and the Finnish Consumer Protection Agency, is
completely wrong. The manufacturer must prove the
relationship between the modification and the fault. Mr.
Mickwitz said that the Kuluttajavirasto is looking for a
clear case where a manufacturer has refused to repair or
replace a product without charge and used the excuse that a
consumer has modified something that, technically, would
have no possibility of affecting the defective part. It is
also thought that this threat by manufacturers to void their
guarantees because of modifications is, in and of itself,
illegal.
Even though
consumer legislation is very strong in Finland, the burden
on the consumer to wade through the bureaucracy and legal
conflicts is oppressive and intimidating. Good behavior by
manufacturers and importers would be much more likely if
Finland had class-action legal processes where a group of
consumers could file suit together and share the costs and
difficulties that any law action brings. Sweden is now
proposing permissive legislation to allow class-action suits
and the future for Finland and the EU may be brighter in
this regard.
Meanwhile,
consumers should continue to be diligent and speak out for
their rights. At the same time manufacturers and importers
should realize that new technologies such as DVD require
creating confidence on the market that a reliable and
useable product is offered and should definitely re-think if
they want to look so very foolish when they use 'guarantee'
issues to threaten people not to modify their DVD's to play
W.C. Fields movies that will probably never be put onto the
European market. And, of course, the whole industry should
reconsider the very ridiculous system of artificial region
codes anyway - DVD is a really fine technology that is
theoretically universally useable and should be in practice,
too.
(For
Part I/Osa I - click
here)
If you have any
additions, suggestions, rebuttals, etc. I would be glad to
hear from you.
Dr. Robert F.
Woods
Sound Center
Inc.
Yrjönkatu
8
00120
Helsinki
FINLAND
robert.woods@soundcenter.fi
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