Politech: FC: Police raid video stores in Sweden for selling -- imported DVDs

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[Perhaps next we'll see European police holding public bonfires of Region 1 
DVDs? At least it'll be a good photo opportunity. --Declan]
---

To: declan () well com
From: Macki <macki () 2600 com>
Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2001 14:26:13 -0700

I suppose it was inevitable... Eventually they'll be locking people up for 
giving away the endings to movies too (depriving the studios of value and 
whatnot).
http://www.2600.com/news/display.shtml?id=541

VIDEO STORE RAIDED FOR SELLING IMPORTED DVD'S
Posted 28 Jun 2001 08:58:56 UTC
A front page article in the Swedish daily Metro (Skane edition) has a very 
interesting article about a raid which took place at video stores in 
Gothenburg and Stockholm. Apparently, the only reason this raid took place 
was because the store was selling Region 1 DVD's - in other words, imported 
DVD's. No, this is not a dream.
As you may know, the MPAA, among other entities, has helped to create 
artificial barriers that prevent DVD's from being played in different parts 
of the world. It's called "region coding." This is what programs like DeCSS 
manage to defeat and it's one of the real reasons the MPAA went ballistic 
over its release. Being able to force people to buy DVD's on whatever terms 
the industry decrees makes it a lot easier to really rake in the dough and 
control distribution in ways that were previously unimaginable. And now 
they apparently intend to get tough on anyone who tries to bypass this 
barrier - even if there was absolutely no piracy or illegal activity involved!
Here is a translation of the article, courtesy of a 2600 reader in Sweden. 
Note how it's now being said that it's actually ILLEGAL to sell DVD's from 
a different region. It's also rather humorous how the value of the DVD's is 
stated as if this were some kind of a drug or weapon bust. And it's rather 
chilling to find out that apparently this is not the first time such a 
thing has happened.
Metro, Wednesday 27 June 2001
by Joakim Goksor


"Hundreds of illegal DVD's seized by Swedish Police"

Gothenburg - Hundreds of illegal DVD's were seized when the Police's 
enforcement officer carried out a civil search on the "TV-Spelborsen" store 
located in the Femman building yesterday.
The films are all so-called "Region 1" DVD's, reserved for the American 
market and therefore forbidden for retail sale in Europe.
The raid was part of a coordinated action against the retail-chain's 
location in central Stockholm, where a similar raid netted several hundred 
DVD films.
In all, around 500 DVD's were seized, with an extimated market value of 
approximately 150,000 Swedish Kronor, or US$15,000.
In a previous Swedish case with approximately the same number of seized 
DVD's, a retailer was sentenced to a fine of approximately 500,000 Swedish 
Kronor -- US$50,000. 



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