egafd.com

What stops you from putting an ad in the sunday sport saying "Buy my videos". If they're any good word of mouth will spread and you'll make ?30 every video.

Why not indeed?

Firstly, you would have to get R18 certification for the tapes to legally sell them in the UK - that costs money. Sell them without R18 certification and you risk prosecution - only alternative would be to sell 18 certificate tapes which are what you see on TAC and TVX every night - CRAP!!!

Secondly, even if you got R18 certification you would be breaking the pre historic UK laws as it is illegal to sell R18 videos by mail order - they can only be sold over the counter.

Thirdly, how in Gods name would you make ?30 per tape? Bearing in mind the costs John outlined above in producing a tape as well as the duplication costs and the cost of certification you would need to either sell the tapes at a very high price (in which case no one would buy them anyway) or sell huge numbers to recoup your costs.

Maybe someone famous in the industry will stand as a Member of Parliament in the next elections - it will take someone chipping away from the inside for anything to happen. Unfortunately until the government realises the amount of revenue they are losing out on from taxes on porn movies (which is being bought and sold anyway regardless of what the law says) nothing will ever happen.

Jason

Your first point on Piracy pretty much confirms what I'm saying - European porn can withstand piracy because it has large economies of scale and its operators enjoy wide margins of profit. That is not so in the UK because the market is artificially restricted.

It's got nothing to do with large European porn companies settling disputes 'in back alleys'. They don't, because they don't need to.

There is more piracy there than in a UK producer's worst nightmare.

Look at what pirates charge for their tapes - twenty or even thirty quid a shot. Such parasites are they that they rip off the industry without even passing the benefit on to the viewer in terms of a lower price.

If you could buy hardcore in Blockbuster as you can in the US, do you think they could get away with this? No. If the R18 release process wasn't so obscure and slow, and porn could be sold other than through seedy sex shops, people would have no need to recourse to jobbing thieves advertising in the local Post, let alone ones charging thirty quid for a static-fried VHS.

au contraire, mon frere - it's very likely, indeed.

not so long ago knowledgeable industry folk such as mr dover, were dismissing the possibility of legal h/c in blighty as a total pipe-dream. and then, suddenly (insert three dots)

er, mine's a number 69.

If I bet against it, it'll happen (well, works for me).
No. 69 is off, due as to sudden unexpected Health dept visit. Velly solly.