A region lock (or region coding) is a class of digital rights management preventing the use of a certain product or service, such as multimedia or a hardware device, outside a certain region or territory. A regional lockout may be enforced through physical means, through technological means such as detecting the user's IP address or using an identifying code, or through unintentional means introduced by devices only supporting certain regional technologies (such as video formats, i.e., NTSC and PAL).
A regional lock may be enforced for several reasons, such as to stagger the release of a certain product, to avoid losing sales to the product's foreign publisher, to maximize the product's impact in a certain region through localization, to hinder grey market imports by enforcing price discrimination, or to prevent users from accessing certain content in their territory because of legal reasons (either due to censorship laws, or because a distributor does not have the rights to certain intellectual property outside their specified region).
Multimedia
Disc regions
The DVD, Blu-ray Disc, and UMD media formats all support the use of region coding; DVDs use eight region codes (Region 7 is reserved for future use; Region 8 is used for "international venues", such as airplanes and cruise ships), and Blu-ray Discs use three region codes corresponding to different areas of the world. Most Blu-rays, however, are region-free. Ultra HD Blu-ray discs are also region-free.
On computers, the DVD region can usually be changed five times. Windows uses three region counters: its own, that of the DVD drive, and that of the player software (occasionally, the player software has no region counter of its own, but uses that of Windows). After the fifth region change, the system is locked to that region. In modern DVD drives (type RPC-2), the region lock is saved to its hardware, so that even reinstalling Windows or using the drive with a different computer will not unlock the drive again.
Unlike DVD regions, Blu-ray regions are verified only by the player software, not by the computer system or the drive. The region code is stored in a file or the registry, and there are hacks to reset the region counter of the player software. In stand-alone players, the region code is part of the firmware.
For bypassing region codes, there are software and multi-regional players available.
A new form of Blu-ray region coding tests not only the region of the player/player software, but also its country code, repurposing a user setting intended for localization (PSR19) as a new form of regional lockout. This means, for example, while both the U.S. and Japan are Region A, some American discs will not play on devices/software configured for Japan or vice versa, since the two countries have different country codes. (For example, the United States is "US" (21843 or hex 0x5553), Japan is "JP" (19024 or hex 0x4a50), and Canada is "CA" (17217 or hex 0x4341).) Although there are only three Blu-ray regions, the country code allows much more precise control of the regional distribution of Blu-ray Discs than the six (or eight) DVD regions.
Since Blu-ray discs are cheaper in America than in Japan, American releases of Japanese anime series are often protected in that way to prevent reversal importations. Some discs check whether the country code is U.S. or Canada (sometimes also Mexico) and play only in these countries, others allow all country codes (even those of non–Region-A countries), except the Japanese.
AnyDVD HD (7.5.9.0 and higher) has an option to enforce the U.S. country code. The software developers say users can also change the country code to enforce in the registry value "bdCountryCode" themselves or set "no country code" by using the value 4294967295 or hex 0xFFFFFFFF. (Before the change of the value, AnyDVD must be closed, and after changing, it must be restarted.)
Some stand-alone Blu-ray players and player programs allow to change the country code (e.g., via the parental lock) and can bypass this protection like that.
Software
Some features of certain programs are/were disabled if the software is/was installed on a computer in a certain region.
In older versions of the copy software CloneCD, the features "Amplify Weak Sectors", "Protected PC Games," and "Hide CDR Media" were disabled in the United States and Japan. Changing the region language settings in Windows (e.g., to Canadian English) or patches could unlock these features in the two countries. SlySoft left these options disabled for the U.S. for legal reasons, but no features were disabled in AnyDVD. The current version of CloneCD (5.3.1.4) is not region-restricted anymore.
The newer versions of the copy software (9.1.5.0 and higher) come in a U.S. version (with no Blu-ray–ripping feature), which is downloaded if the homepage dvdfab.cn identifies a U.S. IP address, and a non-US version (with working Blu-ray–ripping feature). Some webpages allow the download of the non-U.S. version also from the U.S. (they store the non-U.S. version directly and do not use download links to the developer's homepage).
The software CCleaner v5.45.6611 has an added check to prevent the use in embargoed countries.
Some programs (e.g., games) are distributed in different versions for NTSC and PAL computers. In some cases, to avoid grey market imports or international software piracy, they are designed not to run on a computer with the wrong TV system. Other programs can run on computers with both TV systems.
Kaspersky Lab sells its anti-virus products at different prices in different regions and uses regionalized activation codes. A program bought in a country of a region can be activated in another country of the region. Once activated, the software can also be used in and download updates from other regions as long as the license is valid. Problems may arise when the license must be renewed, or if the software must be reinstalled, in a region other than the one where it was bought. The region is identified by the IP address (there is no activation possible without Internet connection), so the use of VPN or a proxy is recommended to circumvent the restriction.
The Kaspersky regions are: Region 1: Canada, United States, Mexico, and Bermuda Region 2: Western Europe, the Middle East, South Africa, Egypt, and Japan Region 3: Southeast Asia Region 4: Central America, South America (excluding French Guiana), and Oceania; Mexico uses software that uses flags for both regions 1 and 4 Region 5: Africa, India, and the Commonwealth of Independent States (also includes Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Serbia) Region 6: Mainland China Region 7: Elsewhere Region 8: Special international area (airplane, steamer, etc.)
The desktop versions of HP Pavilion and Compaq Presario are region-locked, according the build is 91UKV6PRA1, for the A6740uk released in 2009. WildTangent EMEA, Magic Desktop will not work on models in the U.S.
The HP FlexBuild regions are: USA: United States JAP: Japan KOR: Korean EMEA: Middle East TOUCH: Designed for HP Touchsmart only
Websites
On the internet, geo-blocking is used primarily to control access to online media content that is only licensed for playback in a certain region due to territorial licensing arrangements.
Video games Regional lockouts in video games have been achieved by several methods, such as hardware/software authentication, slot pin-out change, differences in cartridge cases, IP blocking and online software patching. Most console video games have region encoding.
The main regions are: Japan and Asia (NTSC-J) Americas (NTSC-U) Europe, Oceania, Middle East, India, South Africa (PAL) China (NTSC-C)
Atari The Atari 2600 does not have regional locking; however, NTSC games can display wrong colors, slow speed and sound on PAL systems, and vice versa.
The Atari 7800 has regional locking on NTSC systems, making PAL games unplayable on them. However, the PAL versions of the Atari 7800 can run NTSC games, but still suffering from the same problems the Atari 2600 had.
The Atari 5200, Lynx, and Jaguar are region-free.
Nintendo Nintendo was the first console maker to introduce regional locks to its consoles, using them for every one of its home consoles until the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo has mostly abstained from using them for its handheld consoles.
Games for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) were locked through both physical and technical means; the design of cartridges for the NES differed between Japan and other markets, using a different number of pins. As the Famicom (the Japanese model) used slightly smaller cartridges, Japanese games could not fit into NES consoles without an adapter (and even with that, they could still not use the extra sound functionalities of the Famicom due to their differing hardware). Official adapters existed inside early copies of Gyromite; other Famicom games could be played by disassembling the cartridge and then swapping out the original board of the game with a different Famicom game's board.
Additionally, the NES also contained the 10NES authentication chip; the chip was coded for one of four regions: NTSC (North America) PAL-A (United Kingdom, Australia, and Italy) PAL-B (other European countries and South Korea) Asia (South East Asia, India, and Hong Kong)
A game's region is recognized by the console using the 10NES chip. If the chip inside the cartridge conflicts with the chip inside the console, the game will not boot. The 10NES chip also doubled as a form of digital rights management to prevent loading unlicensed or bootleg games. The redesigned Nintendo Entertainment System model released in 1993 lacks the 10NES chip, and can play PAL and unlicensed games, although Famicom games still need a converter. The Famicom does not include a 10NES chip, but is still unable to play imports unless an adapter is used, due to the different size of the media.
The American Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super NES) and the Super Famicom use differences in cartridge cases. A Super NES cartridge will not fit in a Super Famicom/PAL Super NES slot due to its different shape and two pieces of plastic in the Super NES slot prevent Super Famicom cartridges from being inserted in the Super NES. PAL Super NES carts can be fully inserted in Japanese consoles, but a similar chip to the 10NES, called the CIC, prevents PAL games from being played in NTSC consoles and vice versa. While physical modification of the cases (either console or cartridges) is needed to play games from the different regions, in order to play games of different TV systems, a hardware modification is also needed. Region locks could be bypassed using special unlicensed cartridge adapters such as Game Genie. The swapping of cartridge shells also bypasses the physical regional lockout.
The Nintendo 64 uses similar lockout methods to the Super NES.
Both the GameCube and Wii are region-locked, and the Wii Shop Channel is also region-locked as well. On the Wii, channels from other regions will refuse to load with the message "This channel can't be used." The coded regions are: NTSC-U (The Americas and Asia) PAL (Europe and Oceania) NTSC-J (Japan) NTSC-K (South Korea)
The GameCube and Wii's regional lockout can be bypassed either by console modification or simply by third-party software. Datel's FreeLoader or Action Replay discs are most notable.
The Wii U and its GamePad is also region-locked.