Regional lockout

A regional lockout 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.
A regional lockout 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.

Multimedia

Disc regions

The DVD, Blu-ray Disc, and UMD media formats all support the use of region coding; DVDs use eight region codes, 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. After the fifth region change, the system is locked to that region. In modern DVD drives, 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 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., Japan is "JP", and Canada is "CA" 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 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 and play only in these countries, others allow all country codes, except the Japanese.
AnyDVD HD 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.
Some stand-alone Blu-ray players and player programs allow to change the country code 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 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 is not region-restricted anymore.
The newer versions of the copy software come in a U.S. version, which is downloaded if the homepage dvdfab.cn identifies a U.S. IP address, and a non-US version. Some webpages allow the download of the non-U.S. version also from the U.S..
The software CCleaner v5.45.6611 has an added check to prevent the use in embargoed countries.
Some programs 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, 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, and Oceania; Mexico uses software that uses flags for both regions 1 and 4
Region 5: Africa, India, and the Commonwealth of Independent States
Region 6: Mainland China
Region 7: Elsewhere
Region 8: Special international area

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
Americas
Europe, Oceania, Middle East, India, South Africa
China
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 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 used slightly smaller cartridges, Japanese games could not fit into NES consoles without an adapter. 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
PAL-A
PAL-B
Asia

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 released in 1993/1994 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 and the Super Famicom use differences in cartridge cases. A Super NES cartridge will not fit in a Super Famicom/PAL SNES slot due to its different shape and two pieces of plastic in the SNES slot prevent Super Famicom cartridges from being inserted in the SNES. PAL SNES 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 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 as 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
PAL
NTSC-J
NTSC-K

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 Gamepads are also region-locked.
The Nintendo Switch is region-free, and therefore allows for games from any region to be played, whether through physical cartridges or digital downloads. For instance, games from the Nintendo eShop can be purchased and downloaded regardless of region. The only exception to this is the Chinese version of the Nintendo Switch distributed by Tencent in mainland China. This version of the console can still play cartridge-based games from any region; however, they can only connect to Chinese servers. Thus, it cannot access any game updates, DLC or online modes from games in other regions, or download said games digitally. Conversely, all other versions of the Nintendo Switch are unable to play cartridge-based games made by Tencent specifically for the Chinese Nintendo Switch.

Region Code	Country	Notes
JPN	Japan	Japanese–based games and systems are usually released in JPN region first.
USA	The Americas	American–based games are usually released in USA region first, while Japanese–based games and systems are usually released in USA region second.
EUR	Europe	Games and systems usually launch in EUR region third.
AUS	Oceania	Many games released in Australia/New Zealand actually share the same version as the EUR region. However, a minority of games released in Australia/New Zealand have a different version from the European release, due to censorship and content edits. Games from AUS region will work in European systems and vice versa.
ASI, CHT, KOR	Asia	Applicable for Versions 8.0.0 and later. This region is less common in terms of number of titles, compared to JPN/USA/EUR. Similar to AUS region, games with ASI region have a different version due to censorship, content edits, or regional language differences. Before version 8.0.0, most Asian countries belonged to the Americas, similar to the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.

The Nintendo Switch 2 is also region-free in regions outside of Japan, similar to the Nintendo Switch. However a cheaper Japan-exclusive model has been released alongside the regular worldwide version for that region which prevents the use of non-Japanese accounts and is locked to the Japanese language only.
All Nintendo handheld consoles except both Nintendo DSi and Nintendo 3DS models are fully region-free. In the case of the former, only the physical and digital games that cannot be played on earlier DS models are region-locked. The latter's region lock strictly applies to all software designed for it, with the only exception being the application Nintendo 3DS Guide: Louvre, which is not a game in of itself but rather as an application that serves as a guide for visitors of the Louvre Museum. Like the Wii, the 3DS's regional lockout can be bypassed by third-party software or custom firmware such as Luma3DS.