Why aren't all Blu-rays/dvds region free?

[Dotpattern]

Originally Posted by bone crusher

Wouldn't it be nice if all our BD players could play any disc from anywhere in the world? What is the reasoning for making particular movies region locked?

It has to do with different studios owning the distribution rights to a specific country. For instance, (totally hypothetical and simplified) let's say Fox and WB joined to produce a movie. And let's say Fox owned the distribution rights in the US, while WB owned the rights to Europe. The disc would be region locked when WB released the movie in Europe to control sales in Europe, and vice versa. It actually gets more complicated with the more studios, especially independent studios, are involved.