I just finished watching the Prestige, an import from the UK. At the end of the film, something in the copyright warning caught my eye. It basically states that the disc can't be exported, sold, or traded to locations outside of the European Union, without special permission from Warner Brothers.

I guess my question is, do places like Amazon UK have permission? Does the place that Xploited Cinema buys from (or Xploited themselves), have special permission? Or are these imports from businesses that would appear legitimate, really part of an illegal trade of copyright infringing material. Could US customs seize any import HD DVD as illegal, if the WB requested it?

You are questioning one of the pluses for HD DVD. Why ask why? It appears as though blind eyes are turned from the studios or they just don't care. If the importing of media was going to be a huge issue, this would have been stopped a LONG time ago with SD DVD's and region free players. Enjoy them.

Basically it comes down to you cannot legally stop someone from selling something they legally own.

Distributors and studios can discourage one from doing so by making such claims on the discs etc, and threatening to withdraw supply if you don't comply, but other than that they can't do jack.

One thing you should be aware of though is different countries have laws surround film classification.

For instance in my homeland (New Zealand) i can import any film as long as it does not contain offensive material (seriously hard core stuff), but what i can't do is resell a film that i've imported to the public if it hasn't been classifed locally. And if it has been classified it must show the correct sticker detailing the classification. However i can sell/trade/swap the film privately, but i cannot sell/trade/swap the film via a private club unless that club is directly related to the film industry.

I was just asking because it seems like if Xploited Cinema (the biggest US reseller of import discs currently) isn't buying from someone that has special permission(or has permission themselves), that if the studios complained, the USPS could just confiscate all their shipments. The same goes for Amazon UK, or any other English retailer who is exporting.

I'm wondering if retailers should post something verifying that they do have the special permission needed to export these discs. I know that if a retailer could state this, I would buy from them and stop using anyplace that didn't have permission.

I just finished watching the Prestige, an import from the UK. At the end of the film, something in the copyright warning caught my eye. It basically states that the disc can't be exported, sold, or traded to locations outside of the European Union, without special permission from Warner Brothers.

A good question is can a private company prohibit exports / imports. Usually only the givt can make regulate such things ...

In any case I beleive that is something between the retailer and WB - not you.

I believe same kind of notices have appeared in DVDs all along but it hasn't stopped anybody from importing/exporting them. I doubt there is any actual law that would support such an import/export ban in most countries.

I'm not sure what copyright has to do with, what would we call this? Region bullying? There's no code involved, so no D**A violation I can can think of (disclaimer: I am not a lawyer).

My guess is it's just boilerplate that WB can use to bring the hammer down on any entity that causes them excessive grief. They probably don't want big B&M stores selling them, though.

And speaking of the dreaded D**A, aren't code-free DVD players pretty much the norm in Europe? How is that not illlegal?

Make sure you don't rip the tags off the mattress before watching a Euro HD DVD in bed!

I'm not sure what copyright has to do with, what would we call this? Region bullying? There's no code involved, so no D**A violation I can can think of (disclaimer: I am not a lawyer).

My guess is it's just boilerplate that WB can use to bring the hammer down on any entity that causes them excessive grief. They probably don't want big B&M stores selling them, though.

And speaking of the dreaded D**A, aren't code-free DVD players pretty much the norm in Europe? How is that not illlegal?

I don't think region code restrictions on playback hw is protected by any laws in most countries either. DVD player manufacturers just wouldn't get their players certified with a DVD logo if they didn't implement the region code restrictions in them but after that those players can be modified by someone who knows how to do it without any law-breaking in most countries...

Make sure you don't rip the tags off the mattress before watching a Euro HD DVD in bed!

OH SH*T!!1 :eek:

Basically it comes down to you cannot legally stop someone from selling something they legally own.

Distributors and studios can discourage one from doing so by making such claims on the discs etc, and threatening to withdraw supply if you don't comply, but other than that they can't do jack.

One thing you should be aware of though is different countries have laws surround film classification.

For instance in my homeland (New Zealand) i can import any film as long as it does not contain offensive material

So you can't import any Adam Sandler movies huh? ;)