Page 1 of Is it ILLegal to sell Region 1 DVD in the U.K

Does anyone know whethere there is an actual law that has been passed that prevent shops from selling region 1 or any region type of DVDs in the U.K. Or is it just that film and distribution companies prevent it somehow.
Does anyone no what the situation is. After all you buy multi region DVDs from Richer-sounds that are advertised as such on there web able to play any DVD type and order region 1 DVDs over the web/ mail order etc.

Anyonw Help

Thanks

Yeah it is Illegal to sell region 1 DVD`s in a shop in the uk... Though heehehe theres a video shop where I live that allows you to actually RENT region 1 dvds, pretty cool my m8 does it and copys them to video tape...

...only if you`re caught...

The law goes something like this:-

The Video Recordings Act was passed in 1984 and has been amended several times since - videos/DVDs offered for sale or hire commercially in the UK must be classified by an authority designated by the Home Office (the lovely people at the BBFC).

Not as such.

Region coding is just an artificial scheme dreamed up by the film studios and has no basis in UK law (or any other law that I`m aware of).

However as Rich points out, it is illegal to sell any DVD or video that has not been classified by the BBFC for distribution in the UK, with a few very specific exceptions (like educational films and documentaries). This not only rules out most Region 1 (and other region) imports, but also imports from other Region 2 countries, such as France and Germany.

At present there is certainly no law which prevents companies from selling multi-region *players*, nor is there a law which prevents you from importing non-BBFC-classified discs for your own personal use.

If the film companies have their way, however, these could be made illegal. The new European Copyright Directive is somewhat worrying in its implications.

Mike

Okay, so the law seems quite clear. But, how can shops like The Laserdisc Shop sell R1 material? They also stock R2 and used to stock a lot of import LD, hence the shop name.

There are loads of these stores selling R1 stuff, so do trading standards (or whoever) actually take any steps in enforcing the law or do they not care unless someone makes a complaint?

I personally think they have more important things to do then chase after shops selling R1 DVD...

The Video Recordings Act states that all video (no matter how short) must be passed by the BBFC.

Also, to sell R1 or R0 dvds in the UK you must:
1) Submit the disc the BBFC for classifcation
2) Purchase a distribution license from the UK right owner


If you don`t buy the distribution license the UK rights owner will get you for copyright infringment. (Pathe and Univeral are well known for going after companies)


If a UK company doesn`t get it BBFC approved and buy a distribution license they can sell R1 dvds in the UK on the condition that they don`t keep stock in the UK (they have to prove to customs that they have confirmed orders, if they don`t customs will seize the shipment)


If the The Laserdisc Shop is keeping R1 stock in the UK and if they have not brought a distribution license for the titles they are breaking the law.

So assuming that the BBFC has no reason for not passing a region 1 version of say Shrek then to obtain a distribution license then it`s the film company that would refuse to sell one and so preventing shops from stocking the region 1 film. So ultimately its the film company that dictates when where and if the film can be sold in a country which is discrimnation.

it is illegal for a shop to hold stock of a r1 dvd and then sell it on to the consumer. but a shop can import a r1 dvd on order and then make a profit by selling it on to the customer. Basically they just act as an import company.

awol

However as far as i understand it if the customer who got the shop to import the disc for them does not pay for or collect the disc then the shop can sell the disc on as they would a r2 disc

This item was edited on Sunday, 28th April 2002, 01:27

I think most r1 sellers which send their packages from within the Uk are registered as companys outside the UK?

For example the invoice from Future Entertainment claims to be from "A. G. Express" based in Mississauga, North America.