Warner Bros. ends home video / DVD business in South Korea, piracy to blame

Those guys look pretty passionate, wouldn't you say? It's folks like that (we presume) that have forced Warner Brothers' hand, and now the studio will end its home video and DVD business in the nation of South Korea. According to an unnamed official at Warner Brothers Home Video Korea, "one of the reasons for the pullout is a slump in the video and DVD market, resulting from online piracy and illegal downloading," and amazingly enough, Warner Bros. is actually the last remaining Hollywood company to pull out of the region. Instead, the firm will focus on "digital distribution," and given that just about everyone and their grandmother has access to the internetz in South Korea, we'd say that's probably an intelligent move.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 16th 2008 5:01AM]

Digital downloads are great, but this is really a lose for the S. Korean people. Less choice and option is never a good thing.

But I wonder, how does WB plan to protect their digital files after pulling out if they cannot do it now?

http://www.ROCKandREVIEW.com/

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 16th 2008 10:56AM]

not really since they would just pirate video anyways dvd production and vhs production will continue (pirate copies for all via it rip from dvd/vhs/beta/laserdisc/theatre cam recorded/bluray)

[LonnieDVD Posted Nov 16th 2008 11:10AM]

Grrr, those darn pirates are the reason us honest customers have to put up with so much DRM.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 16th 2008 12:30PM]

You're confusing DRM with copy protection. Copy protection is there to prevent copying. DRM is there so companies can please their ego and regulate how you use something you pay for. I have nothing against copy protection. I have everything against DRM.