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I'm not sure how long they've been doing it for, but GleeBooks is now among the Sydney stores to sell import Criterion DVDs. Unfortunately, they are (as usual) at grossly inflated prices. The cheapest 1-disc editions there retail for $49.95 while 2-disc copies begin from $67.95 (With the exception of Richard III, on sale for $39.95) and go up from there. Very annoying. It would be nice if one of these stores could try to arrange something with Criterion so they could actually import their sale stock at wholesale prices, lessening the need for such expensive titles.

Gregor Samsa wrote:I'm not sure how long they've been doing it for, but GleeBooks is now among the Sydney stores to sell import Criterion DVDs. Unfortunately, they are (as usual) at grossly inflated prices. The cheapest 1-disc editions there retail for $49.95 while 2-disc copies begin from $67.95 (With the exception of Richard III, on sale for $39.95) and go up from there. Very annoying. It would be nice if one of these stores could try to arrange something with Criterion so they could actually import their sale stock at wholesale prices, lessening the need for such expensive titles.

That's still cheaper than Minotaur in Melbourne. Single discs are $58.95 and doubles are $78.95 there.

Gregor Samsa wrote:It would be nice if one of these stores could try to arrange something with Criterion so they could actually import their sale stock at wholesale prices, lessening the need for such expensive titles.

Criterion only have the rights for most titles for the US and maybe Canada. They could not enter into such an arrangement without being in breach of contract. To me the Gleebooks prices are reasonable, taking into account the prices they would be paying to get them and their need to make money on the transactions. Of course you can do much better ordering them from o/s yourself.

Oh right. I wasn't aware of those aspects, particularly the even more expensive prices elsewhere. Oops.

Please remember that what Gleeboks is doing is parallel-importing which is illegal and which other stores like Minotaur were fined $100,000 recently. I have no problem with this but when local distribuors have the rights to these films as well like Madman then it just harms the local distributor who would then be discouraged to release such titles locally in the future.

By the way, Amazon is also illegally breaching territorial rights by sending R1 DVDs to other regions in the world. You would think the studios would take action against them but they won't because it extra revenue for them for their R1 DVDs. It is the independent distributor who are mostly affected by Amazon sending R1 DVDs overseas, especially in English-language territories such as UK and Australia. This would only force these same independent distributors who take the risk by releasing these smaller arthouse films to eventually close their business.

Amazingly, Amazon does not send video games overseas as only local US residents can purchase them from their web site. No wonder the video game industry is booming and the DVD industry floundering.

marty, are you implying that foreign and/or art house films would be cheaper and more prevalent in Australia if R1 DVDs couldn't be imported? In other words: the small indie distributors would have more consumers to sell to?

Let's imagine a world of anti-globalisation where film freeks can't get certain discs from the US like CHRONICLE OF MAGDALENA BACH or SIX MORAL TALES due to a full implementation of the US law. Surely the scalpers would move in and sell shrink-wrapped DVDs on e-bay. This traffic could not be stopped. Any cent over the retail price would be profit to these sellers.

I agree with marty's comment on why the international trade of R1 DVDs is condoned. It is good business for the US corps after all.

If I had any inkling of Madman putting TWO OR THREE THINGS out here I would have waited before buying the overpriced R2. Things seem to be changing here so now anything is possible. We might even see Eastern Euro classics soon.

I am all for globalisation but true globalisation is not happening. Globalisation is great for the US market to enter into foreign markets without any restraint of trade. However, if any foreign companies try to enter the US market, watch out. If Madman tried to sell their product to US residents and send them via online orders from Oz then the US distributor of such titles would slap Madman with a lawsuit quicker than you can say "Amazon". Globalisation works best if its two ways and not so pro-US but this will never happen. If local companies try to sue Amazon for territorial breaches, Amazon will just use the legal documents as toilet paper for their staff cleaners.

marty wrote:Please remember that what Gleeboks is doing is parallel-importing which is illegal and which other stores like Minotaur were fined $100,000 recently.

Do Minotaur still actually sell Criterions or any R1 titles?

Solaris wrote:

marty wrote:Please remember that what Gleeboks is doing is parallel-importing which is illegal and which other stores like Minotaur were fined $100,000 recently.

Do Minotaur still actually sell Criterions or any R1 titles?

Haven't checked recently. I suspect they still do but they probably would not stock any titles that have local distributors, especially from the major studios. Legal action against Minotaur was taken by a class action made of the major studios here who objected to them selling R1 DVDs of their biggest blockbuster latest releases.

Minotaur can count their blessings that the courts went light on their fine. When you think that the minimum fine is $50,000 per title, they got off lighly. If the courts applied the fines literally, they would have been liable for about $5m.

as of laws, you can't buy an imported DVD in regular stores, technically.

as for amazon or other etailers, you are really buying the discs from their stores which sell discs that are made within their country, by credit card purchases where the transaction takes place in their country.

So you are really making a purchase of a Region 1 DVD in a Region 1 area.

There is no law that says you can't SHIP the dvds overseas. If there was, I would've had a hell of a time moving around.

I've seen 1 store in Tokyo that sells Criterion and other region DVDs at incredibly overinflated prices. I guess its for people that don't know about the cost savings by importing them yourself.

A couple of small French stores were also raided a couple of years ago for selling R1 titles. My understanding is that Fnac and Virgin and other stores like MK2 which sells R1 imports are only allowed to if the dvds have no French subs or French tracks, or if the film is already availble in France on DVD. This is mostly to prevent imports of films that haven't be distributed theatrically in France yet.

In Britain, you can't buy most foreign-produced DVDs over the counter, but for a different reason - the 1984 Video Recordings Act makes it illegal to sell anything on any video format that hasn't been formally approved by the British Board of Film Classification.

The only exceptions are documentaries and music videos, and even then they can't contain any contentious material (sex, violence, swearing) - though of course rights issues come into play here as well.

Technically, this also makes it illegal to sell non-UK releases via eBay if the seller is based in the UK, but I haven't seen much evidence that this is especially rigorously policed.

I spoke to the bbfc about this, and they said that if the discs are offered for sale in a public space (a shop) then they need bbfc certification.

So someone could quite legitimately setup in the UK as a mail order business, with no supply to shops, and release films without bbfc certification.

My main bone with the bbfc is that submission of material, and their certification costs approximately 1000 pounds per film. This is a hefty cost that other European DVD labels do not have and under European Law this is not a fair and level playing field.

What I would like to see is an opt-out en masse by UK labels -- mass disobedience -- because the bbfc have no legal powers -- it's all with the Trading Standards Agency and their officers would have to enter every store in the UK and force the removal of thousands of DVDs. It would be hilarious and great publicity.

peerpee wrote:What I would like to see is an opt-out en masse by UK labels -- mass disobedience -- because the bbfc have no legal powers -- it's all with the Trading Standards Agency and their officers would have to enter every store in the UK and force the removal of thousands of DVDs. It would be hilarious and great publicity.

The BBFC itself doesn't have any legal powers as such, but since 1984 it's been formally appointed as the sole approved government video classification body - which presumably means that the government can act on its behalf in the face of mass civil disobedience (as can local authorities).

But this mass opt-out isn't going to happen without the participation of the majors - and the present arrangement suits them just fine. In fact, the "video nasties" row probably wouldn't have happened if the majors hadn't been so hesitant about entering the video market in the first place - partly due to concerns about piracy, but also because they were (rightly) worried that they had no legal protection even if their product had been BBFC-approved in its theatrical version.

davidhare wrote:Nick the situation isnt much different for Australia. The OLFC classification fee is around 1000 AUD (around 460 Quid), and it's a major disincentive for importers.

Are you saying distributers pay the OFLC $1000 to classify their films?

peerpee wrote:My main bone with the bbfc is that submission of material, and their certification costs approximately 1000 pounds per film. This is a hefty cost that other European DVD labels do not have and under European Law this is not a fair and level playing field.

I heard that until a few years ago you had to pay a fee for each menu and extra feature on a DVD until it was made just one fee for the whole DVD, and that this was one of the reasons why DVDs released in Britain didn't have as many extra features as their US counterparts (e.g missing commentary tracks etc). Was this actually the case? It seems a bit mad, but I suppose it was the BBFC trying to figure out how to first classify DVDs.

colinr0380 wrote:I heard that until a few years ago you had to pay a fee for each menu and extra feature on a DVD until it was made just one fee for the whole DVD, and that this was one of the reasons why DVDs released in Britain didn't have as many extra features as their US counterparts (e.g missing commentary tracks etc). Was this actually the case? It seems a bit mad, but I suppose it was the BBFC trying to figure out how to first classify DVDs.

Believe it or not, the BBFC doesn't require commentary tracks to be classified (I confirmed this with them only the other day), which has led to amusing situations such as the great Bridget Jones's Diary scandal, whereby an extremely rude word was snipped from the film soundtrack proper in order to get a 15 certificate (the alternative being an adults-only 18), but it was clearly audible in the background of the commentary track!

The advice I was given is that commentary tracks should only be submitted if their content might have an adverse effect on the rating of the DVD as a whole - for instance, swearing in an otherwise child-friendly release.

On a more general note, I've never heard of an extra being dropped purely because of BBFC classification fees - almost invariably, the root problem is to do with rights or space issues (because PAL transfers demand more space, thus potentially squeezing out extras).

Solaris wrote:

davidhare wrote:Nick the situation isnt much different for Australia. The OLFC classification fee is around 1000 AUD (around 460 Quid), and it's a major disincentive for importers.

Are you saying distributers pay the OFLC $1000 to classify their films?

The OFLC classification costs are as follows:

DVD only: 61-120 min A$700. 121-180 min $840, 181-240 min $1,010

Cinema only: 61-120 min A$1,830, 121-180 min $2,300, 181-240 min $2,860 and more than 240 min $5,090

The fees are the same for a blockbuster movie on 300 screens as for an arthouse film on 1 screen which I think is unfair for smaller distributors. The same goes for DVD fees.

What's worse is that since last year, distributors are now obliged to fill out a "Contentious Material" worksheet which they need to submit to OFLC when then hand in their film for classification. The worksheet has to outline any scenes or material on the film that is likely to cause the film ot be rated M or higher. They also need to provide the details of such scenes as well as the timecode it appears during the film.

In effect, the distributors are doing the job of the classifiers for them despite the senior classifiers earning $110k a year. I assume they then just refer to the distributor's worksheet as they enjoy their lunch watching the film. Their job is now done for them.