Obama's gift to Gordon Brown: region 1 dvds

When the news hit that President Obama gave visiting British PM Gordon Brown a set of 25 dvds as part of the traditional gift exchange, I wondered whether the thoughtlessness of the gift might be complicated by the dvds being coded for region 1 (aimed at the North American market). British dvd players are set to play region 2 dvds.

With a hat tip to Power Line, it turns out that Mr. Brown won't be able to watch the dvds unless he either gets a North American market dvd player (along with power adapters) or hacks his player to enable it to play dvds from other regions. The Times (UK) reports that the dvds won't play in Brown's machine.

While not exactly a film buff, Gordon Brown was touched when Barack Obama gave him a set of 25 classic American movies – including Psycho, starring Anthony Perkins on his recent visit to Washington.

Alas, when the PM settled down to begin watching them the other night, he found there was a problem.

The films only worked in DVD players made in North America and the words "wrong region" came up on his screen.

Regardless of how smooth and smart Mr. Obama happens to be, this was neither smooth nor smart. It was clumsy and boneheaded.