[quote=“Silvanito, post:100, topic:413”]Not sure about this, not sure about what that has to do with the boxes?
FSK18 titles you can find in shops too, on a special shelf, FSK16 I don’t think I have seen anywhere ???[/quote]
Es geht um deinen Kopf is a FSK16-title. What I was thinking was that x-rated perhaps only released those New Line-edition titles of their FSK16-releases? Ein Halleluja für Django which is the other release I know of of the type is also FSK16. Don’t know about the titles you mentioned but you could check
What I mean is you perhaps won’t find the really interesting X-Rated-releases in this fashion.
[quote=“AvatarDK, post:85, topic:413”]You missed my final comment: It may come to that at a later time but right now every dvd whatever region is fair game.
And that’s how it is thank God.
Nice example you come up with but you forget that the EU is (also) a free trade union so the example you give is invalid. BUT what could happen is that importing non-R2 (e.g. American) dvds could become illegal for private customers. When that happens it’s gonna get messy.[/quote]
No I did read your final comment. It’s something we mainly agree on. Our differences are that you say it’s currently fair game, whereas I say that it is illegal. It’s the fact that the law is not currently enforced that makes it fair game. Thank goodness, and long may it stay that way.
The EU may be called a free-trade union, but its unelected representatives can quite easily stop free trade in any area they choose, usually when bribed by the appropriate people. A few bucks in the right direction and importing DVDs from Germany to England could be made illegal. Although it’s usually the French and Germans that try to restrict British trade, not the other way round.
What we’re saying is let’s hope that doesn’t happen. What I’m saying is that there are clear legal reasons why that sort of thing could be deemed enforceable.
I think this debate is going somewhat out of proportion
That was when Britain couldn’t export beef because of “mad cow disease” or BSE.
And when it comes to the entertainment industry, all mainstream films from the big movie companies usually get releases in all countries in Europe, so no need for any major import/export of DVDs from one country to the other.
We’re talking about a small business here of releasing cult-movies for a select audience, and what would happen if this audience only bought copies of these films from people like Franco Cleef.
We’re not talking about some competition between cult-DVD companies in Britain versus cult-DVD companies in Germany, this doesn’t exist!! :
But this isn’t true. As a private person I’m perfectly allowed to import e.g. R1-titles. I’m not breaking the law. What is not allowed is for a company placed in Denmark (where I reside) to sell R1-titles, this is against the law. Some companies in Denmark try to navigate this problem by forming a partnership with a company placed in the States and letting them send the releases to the Danish customers. This is also allowed.
Of course I don’t know if the law is different in GB but I would be much surprised.
[quote=“AvatarDK, post:104, topic:413”]But this isn’t true. As a private person I’m perfectly allowed to import e.g. R1-titles. I’m not breaking the law. What is not allowed is for a company placed in Denmark (where I reside) to sell R1-titles, this is against the law. Some companies in Denmark try to navigate this problem by forming a partnership with a company placed in the States and letting them send the releases to the Danish customers. This is also allowed.
Of course I don’t know if the law is different in GB but I would be much surprised.[/quote]
You’re right. It is the same here in the UK. It’s perfectly fine for someone to order R1 dvd’s for private home use, but shops cannot import and sell them. And hopefully this is how things will stay, as speaking for myself, i very rarely buy dvd’s from UK stores.
And i don’t think there is any competition bewteen cult dvd companies in the Uk and Germany either. I tend to buy quite a lot of German dvd’s because they are at least releasing a wide range of SW’s unlike over here >:(
Well, i like it…though mainly for William Berger. I guess it’s a pretty standard revenge flick but it has a good amount of sadistic goings on. Interesting score too. I have a German audio only dvd of it so i’ll probably be getting this one (well, if it turns up on xploited cinema anyway). Been wanting to see Ringo’s Big Night too for a while (despite reading a lot of negative stuff about it!).
Typical low-budget SW of the 70s, reminds me of Fidani’s Showdown For A Badman. Very cheap in every way but decent “B” class action scenes keep it somewhat interesting. Quite violent: protagonist’s psychedelic torture is a must-see and there’s a slasher-styled murder with a pichfork! Those who are in for 70s trash westerns may want to check it out, others should not bother. I don’t think Bianchi made one good movie in his life but he certainly directed some interesting trash movies (Satan’s Baby Doll & The Broken Mirror for example). His second western Creeping Death AKA Kill the Poker Player is slow-moving yet interesting giallo western also suffering from extremely low budget.
Has anyone seen For a Book of Dollars? Any good? For some reason I found the idea about desperados disguised as nuns quite funny.
The latest releases by the Great One are magnificent of two excellent SW.PAL
region 0.Splendid covers & for the English fans they can enjoy these two beauties
now in a language that is comprehendable.Scoop them up immediately.
[quote=“Silver, post:105, topic:413”]You’re right. It is the same here in the UK. It’s perfectly fine for someone to order R1 dvd’s for private home use, but shops cannot import and sell them. And hopefully this is how things will stay, as speaking for myself, i very rarely buy dvd’s from UK stores.
And i don’t think there is any competition bewteen cult dvd companies in the Uk and Germany either. I tend to buy quite a lot of German dvd’s because they are at least releasing a wide range of SW’s unlike over here >:([/quote]
I’m delighted that we’ve got some top legal minds here, ready to clarify the minefield that is attached to movie rights.
So anyway, here in the UK, I’ve just received my copy of GODZILLA VS MONSTER ZERO, also known as INVASION OF THE ASTRO MONSTER.
I actually bought it from a US company, dealing through an offshore English Internet retailer. I could have probably bought it from DVDGO in Canada, or maybe Amazon.com in the US. But here’s the thing: ON the DVD, it says “Not for sale outside the USA and Canada”
Now whether I’m a criminal for buying it, or my offshore English retailer is a criminal for putting me in touch with the US company (they don’t stay offshore fro nothing) , or the US company itself is a criminal, I don’t know. And maybe someone here can tell me.
But I do know this, if they really wanted to enforce these restrictions on the sale of DVDs outside their legal areas, a lot of people would get very upset. Quite a few on this board too, I would imagine.
I don’t why you go on, IndioBlack. At the moment it is NOT illegal for you to import dvds from the US.
The “Not for sale…” marker you saw on your dvd I honest to God can say I’ve never noticed on any of the hundred American dvds I’ve got. What it means here I think is mearly that it is illegal to sell this dvd outside the North American continent meaning that a Danish/British shop can not buy a whole bunch of them and put them up for sale, which they can’t with any non-R2-release.
It may SOME DAY be illegal to purchase R1-releases, but actually it might also go the other way around making R1-releases available in European shops in the name of free competition. Region-coding is only a way for the industry to make more money and as such is a trade restriction.
[quote=“AvatarDK, post:114, topic:413”]I don’t why you go on, IndioBlack. At the moment it is NOT illegal for you to import dvds from the US.
The “Not for sale…” marker you saw on your dvd I honest to God can say I’ve never noticed on any of the hundred American dvds I’ve got. What it means here I think is mearly that it is illegal to sell this dvd outside the North American continent meaning that a Danish/British shop can not buy a whole bunch of them and put them up for sale, which they can’t with any non-R2-release.
It may SOME DAY be illegal to purchase R1-releases, but actually it might also go the other way around making R1-releases available in European shops in the name of free competition. Region-coding is only a way for the industry to make more money and as such is a trade restriction.[/quote]
I’ll tell you why I’m going on - because I think you’re wrong about how completely legal this current International free-market in DVDs really is.
And I was waiting for you to come up with some hard facts rather than a set of beliefs.
I think DVD rights and restrictions already have a strong legal basis, and if big business or governments decided to implement the law regarding those rights and restrictions, then they could. And you wouldn’t like it.
My last post was simply an attempt to demonstrate that there are already clear restrictions in the small-print on most DVDs. The fact that you’ve never noticed that does not surprise me. At least by me “going on”, I’ve educated you about something.
If you don’t like me “going on”, then don’t reply.
You are right Indioblack about the illegality of us importing DVD’s from other juristictions (nothing to do with region coding, all to do with the rights ownership). However, I think for the vested interests to act it would be unenforcible. They will continue to turn a blind eye to individuals importing small scale for their own use. I think they would act differently if they became aware that you or I were importing large quantities for resale (and I mean thousands of DVD’s). Is anyone going to go to the time, trouble and expense of dragging me into court because I bought a $10 copy of an SW from the USA? If I imported $10,000 worth it would be a different story!
It wouldn’t surprize me one bit to discover that the big distributers are actually monitoring the international DVD market to see where and what the demand is for their future releases!
Now, excuse me while I go and order Franco’s latest releases! The law can be an ass and I don’t care if I break it!
[quote=“IndioBlack, post:115, topic:413”]I’ll tell you why I’m going on - because I think you’re wrong about how completely legal this current International free-market in DVDs really is.
And I was waiting for you to come up with some hard facts rather than a set of beliefs.[/quote]
I could say the same then. Show me some legal paragraphs
As a matter of fact I did now notice the “only for sale in…”-marker :), but I still believe it only means you can only put the dvds up for sale in the States/Canada, not that you cannot sell them to people not living there.
I hear your points but I must not say I’m not convinced. What you are saying is that if e.g. an American company has the American rights only to a given product (be it book, dvd, brand of clothes whatever) I am not as an European allowed to buy that product! I cannot believe that’s true. I do believe that the companies especially the big ones would want that it was that way to control sales but I don’t believe that they have the law on their sides.
If it were the case don’t you think we would see at lot of law suits against sites like amazon.com, dvdpacific.com and other major retailers for sending stuff out of the country? But we don’t!? I’ve never heard of any. It would be fairly easy to do that so why isn’t it happening?
[quote=“IndioBlack, post:115, topic:413”]I’ll tell you why I’m going on - because I think you’re wrong about how completely legal this current International free-market in DVDs really is.
And I was waiting for you to come up with some hard facts rather than a set of beliefs.[/quote]
And now I’ve got some The link is in Danish though but is a comment from the Danish minister of Culture (!) to a question regarding importing dvds from the States. I’ll give you a translation here but you’ll have to take my word for its correctness
At the start it is told that the rules only hinders reselling of imported dvds. That you cannot do. But:
It should be noticed that the rules does not stop the consumer from buying copies for himself via postal order or via the internet and the rules does likewise not forbid you to buy movies when vacationing in another country.
Not a legal paragraph but coming from official source so should be valid in Denmark. You must have similar rules in Britain as it applies to the whole EU.
If it is for your own personal use it is not a problem.
Thats why when ordering a title from Amazon U.S ( I live in the U.K), it comes up with a message you are not allowed to order more than one of a specific title at a time.
