Answered What to do with imports I want to clear out.

psmith

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I'm sure the legal issue of selling/trading imported DVD/Blu-ray discs in the UK has been asked at some point in the past, but can't find a definitive answer. I need to reclaim some DVD/Blu-ray shelf space on titles that aren't getting watched more than once ... and that includes some imports.

After recently researching, my understanding is that you can't commercially sell any titles/discs that don't have a BBFC rating. Does that also include private individuals just selling on their (now second-hand) import on ebay or elsewhere? Doesn't seem to go into that kind of detail on the BBFC FAQ page. Do car boot sale laws make things different for the private individual selling it second hand?

If it's not legal, my question is, what does everyone else do when clearing out imported discs? Sell them to the country originally imported from? (Or is that still wrong because you're selling it from a UK location.) Archive them into the loft/attic/basement and chuck the cases out? Throw them in the bin? (Is that legal though if you haven't cut it in half, as you might be performing a form of inadvertent illegal distribution if someone else picks it out of bin or rubbish tip it goes to?)
 
Throw them in the bin? (Is that legal though if you haven't cut it in half, as you might be performing a form of inadvertent illegal distribution if someone else picks it out of bin or rubbish tip it goes to?)

you are joking right?

just look at the classifeds on here for people selling usa uhd discs and blu rays.been selling usa blu rays on ebay for years as has most other uk sellers. you just cant sell them to CEX or CC
 
If you want to sell them to High Street shops they won't take them. If you wanted to open a shop and sell them you couldn't (even though The Cinema Store managed to for years).
But selling them at bootsales, film fairs or on ebay or Amazon won't be a problem unless you swerve toward controversial titles like hard porn or banned films.
For some reason Ebay won't allow listings for either of the Nekromantik films UK releases (but the US releases are fine- go figure). A handful of titles can be a problem on Amazon. I lost count of the number of times Amazon removed my listing for The Bunny Game.

If a film is out on Bluray in either the UK or US any dvd version is likely to be almost worthless anyway and you might get 50p at a bootsale.

PM me your list and I might take a job lot.

Mentioning The Cinema Store reminds me of a numpty on Bluray.com who argued blind that compliance with the Video Recordings Act was voluntary and councils could over rule them which is why The Cinema Store got away with it. he thought the local council gave them permission.
Clueless or what? He still believes it to this day despite several other people pointing out he was wrong
 
Musicmagpie took a few of my US DVDs a few years back otherwise just try here or eBay.
 
Throw them in the bin? (Is that legal though if you haven't cut it in half, as you might be performing a form of inadvertent illegal distribution if someone else picks it out of bin or rubbish tip it goes to?)

you are joking right?

just look at the classifeds on here for people selling usa uhd discs and blu rays.been selling usa blu rays on ebay for years as has most other uk sellers. you just cant sell them to CEX or CC
Yes, I won't be throwing them away. I just thought highlighting an extreme exaggerated example of interpretation of what I've read of this law (video recordings act?) might make my question and puzzlement clearer.

Will look a bit more at the classifieds on here as I haven't much in the past. I have noticed a few imports on the classifieds here in the past, but was not too sure if it was trading/swapping, and maybe came under a more special case of allowance within this law compared to say selling on ebay or even gumtree.

I've never really thought about it in the past, but after noticing that a couple of criterion US titles only seemed to be available from importers on ebay, I worried that perhaps it wasn't the done thing to sell any discs without rating on there from the UK (even if second-hand and not a commercial trader). Anyway, then I read about the video recordings act and ratings being a legal requirement, and couldn't find anything conclusive. Probably the lack of second-hand copies available and those being more of prized possession is the real reason it is rare to see them being sold in the UK.

But selling them at bootsales, film fairs or on ebay or Amazon won't be a problem ...
Musicmagpie took a few of my US DVDs a few years back otherwise just try here or eBay.
Ok that's reassuring. I am not too bothered about Amazon/ebay taking down listings, but more worried about after selling discs, if there was any comeback from the BBFC or some other body catching you selling a disc without rating 'non-commercially' and getting fined or something.

I take it selling such discs non-commercially is one of those grey areas the BBFC don't like to get specific about in their FAQ.

If a film is out on Bluray in either the UK or US any dvd version is likely to be almost worthless anyway and you might get 50p at a bootsale.
It is blu-rays I'm looking to sell on, and probably should have limited to that in my original question, but thought it made sense to include DVDs in the context of the question.

PM me your list and I might take a job lot.
Haven't got that far yet, but I'll get back to you if I get round to it. How does exchange/payment tend to work on here with trading and classifieds: is it more like gumtree with pay by cash and local pickup, or is it exchanging emails and sending out a paypal invoice and then sending by post?
 
You are worrying over nothing, the BBFC will not come knocking on your door for selling imported Blu-rays on here/eBay/Amazon etc
 
You are worrying over nothing, the BBFC will not come knocking on your door for selling imported Blu-rays on here/eBay/Amazon etc
This thread...
IMG_2260.GIF
 
... Well, it's been a weight off my mind hippo99. Do you think, though, that the BBFC might ever engage in sting operations by being the purchaser of the said imported discs without rating symbol being sold non-commercially, and then maybe or maybe not knock on a door ...
 
Firstly the BBFC classify titles. Any "sting" operations would be organised by Trading Standards. Back in the Ferman days when they had nothing better to do they would sometimes visit film fairs and confiscate titles from dealers. But since those days of 20 years ago they wouldn't waste their time as they would be unlikely to get a prosecution if a case was fought.
But try to sell even the mildest imports in a High Street shop (on a regular basis) and they would be on you.

Basically the days of mass movie censorship are thankfully long gone and it would seem that TS take the view that if a film you are selling is the exact same version as the one the BBFC have rated then why waste time. The need to import from the US and Europe was far higher 15-20 years ago so TS had a workload of UK companies selling imported product but these days they don't so unless you try something like selling hardcore porn via your local paper they won't be interested.

Even films that the BBFC have banned are unlikely to attract much attention unless you try offloading dozens of copies. But one each of Murder Set Pieces and Hate Crime shouldn't be an issue.

Strangely , I got a PM last night from someone selling discs and just assumed it was the person in this thread but only just noticed it wasn't. However , PM's from anyone interested in selling Blurays always welcome
 
... Well, it's been a weight off my mind hippo99. Do you think, though, that the BBFC might ever engage in sting operations by being the purchaser of the said imported discs without rating symbol being sold non-commercially, and then maybe or maybe not knock on a door ...
If you sell online via this site, ebay or Amazon you're fairly well protected as nobody sees your address. The only time any authorities might take an interest would be if you had questionable titles on a large scale selling regularly and these days apart from porn I don't think there's any movies they would class as questionable. Offloading your personal collection on a casual basis is zero risk
 
....... Offloading your personal collection on a casual basis is zero risk

It may be the case for an individual, but I wonder whether a website owner would be at some risk for permitting/facilitating (illegal?) sales of imported discs which do not have a BBFC rating? Either something is legal or not - there's not grey area! Any "risk" which may or may not be attached to an illegal activity has to be weighed up like any other, like speeding. This site only allows you to sell "your own personally owned items which are legal to sell in your country".

The Video Recordings Act 1984 (VRA) makes it illegal to supply any video or DVD within the UK which has not been age rated by the BBFC. There are some exceptions to this (for example, educational works or works predominantly concerned with sport, religion and music) but all feature films and TV programmes must be age rated.

Although it is not a customs offence to import an unclassified video or DVD it must be for your personal use only and the content must not breach the UK law (for example, The Obscene Publications Acts 1959 and 1964, Protection of Children Act 1978).

You may therefore purchase unclassified videos or DVDs whilst abroad, provided they contain no illegal material and are solely for personal use.

The 1984 act was replaced by the 2010 version.

There's no doubt that the advent of digital streaming has blurred the lines somewhat, but until the VRA is valid in its current 2010 form, it is clear from the government site

Intellectual property offences - GOV.UK

that:
zuY2WrW.png


Similar penalties apply to these categories as well:

4.2 Possession of video recording of unclassified work for purposes of supply
4.3 Supplying of video recording of classified work for purposes of supply
4.4 Supply of video recording not complying with requirements as to labels


YMMV!

 
It may be the case for an individual, but I wonder whether a website owner would be at some risk for permitting/facilitating (illegal?) sales of imported discs which do not have a BBFC rating? Either something is legal or not - there's not grey area! Any "risk" which may or may not be attached to an illegal activity has to be weighed up like any other, like speeding. This site only allows you to sell "your own personally owned items which are legal to sell in your country".



The 1984 act was replaced by the 2010 version.

There's no doubt that the advent of digital streaming has blurred the lines somewhat, but until the VRA is valid in its current 2010 form, it is clear from the government site

Intellectual property offences - GOV.UK

that:
zuY2WrW.png


Similar penalties apply to these categories as well:

4.2 Possession of video recording of unclassified work for purposes of supply
4.3 Supplying of video recording of classified work for purposes of supply
4.4 Supply of video recording not complying with requirements as to labels


YMMV!
You'll have to ask Amazon as they not only list imports (some of which they sell themselves, although not often) but they have thousands of sellers offering imported titles.
You might also ask Warner Home Video who have allowed quite a few titles to appear on Bluray that are now uncut where previously only a cut version was available but Warner didn't bother to get the title reclassified.
Or Ebay seller Toysandfilms with premises in Hertfordshire who clearly has thousands of imports in stock that he sells daily.
The list goes one.Thankfully common sense prevails where once it didn't

As for the VRA - the 1984 Act was not really replaced by the 2010 act at all.
As the CPS put it: The VRA 2010 repealed and revived without amendment the Video Recordings Act 1984 (VRA 1984) in order to rectify a procedural error made during the passage of the VRA 1984.
In an admin error only this country would let pass by it appeared that the VRA was never implemented properly and didn't go through all the correct legal steps so it was in fact never valid - not until 2010 when someone realised. Although of course there was never any talk of compensation for the people over the years who were convicted under the VRA.

But it remains accurate to say that unlike the draconian days of the 80's and 90's it is now risk free to sell imported titles on a collector to collector basis. The only place where the authorities might take an interest is a High Street shop although The Cinema Store got away with it for decades
 
The 1984 26 year old unlawful act was replaced by the 2010

Fixed that for you.

2soaQjN.png


It may have disappeared from the English censor's site and the sands of time but I kept a screengrab.
 
Brilliant, anyway. Pretty disastrous not to mention embarrassing. 26 years of a non act before it was spotted......dear oh dear.
 
The way Cinema store displayed their region 1 DVD’s was clever, they put them into jewel cases and slapped the relevant BBFC certificate on the plastic wrapping of the case inside. To the untrained eye it looked like a standard UK release.
Kind of a less obvious video rental store cert sticker after the VRA kicked in.
To bed honest I see a tonne of Region 1 for sale on eBay, Music Magpie etc
I think the BBFC are not overly concerned with people selling Region 1’s at the moment, they are too busy trying to restrict the watching of rudey bits on the internet.
 
Best screengrab ever! Love it! Where'd you get it?

They rushed another VRA through the courts quicker than a bolt of lightning.
This was covered in the documentary “Video Nasties : Moral Panic, Censorship and Video Tape”
 

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