region code: In order to keep control over the copyright of the films, the film industry has divided the individual countries of the world into regions for the international distribution of films. In each of these regions, the DVDs are encoded differently. This coding is known as a country code or region code. DVD-Player only accept the country code that is valid in the region. This is to prevent overlapping times between cinema and home cinema, as films are released much earlier in some countries than in others. Another reason is the protection of minors, because different youth protection laws apply in the USA than in Germany.
