FACT's Guide to Buying DVDs

FACT's Guide to buying and selling DVD's safely

1. What is FACT?
2. FACT’s Guide: How to avoid buying a pirated DVD
3. Additional Advice from FACT for buying DVDs safely on Tazbar

• What is FACT?

  The content of this guide is provided by FACT, the UK’s leading trade organisation established to protect the film industry against piracy.

  Film piracy is punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine, as well as seizure of assets. FACT, the Federation Against Copyright Theft, is the film industry’s enforcement body and investigates film piracy across the UK, working with Police and Trading Standards. Tazbar regularly works with FACT and with Trading Standards to prevent and deter piracy on Tazbar.

• How to avoid buying a pirated DVD:

  Many Tazbar users may be tempted to buy DVDs from sellers on Tazbar offering cheap, brand-new, and seemingly hard-to-find DVDs. But the message is, if it seems too good to be true it often is, and the chances are that buyers may be left with a poor-quality and illegal copy. Below is FACT's checklist for what to look out for before bidding on a DVD:

  • Is the film still being shown in the cinema? Has the film been released on DVD yet?
  • Does the film have a company hologram on the inner sleeve
  • If this isn’t obvious from the listing, ask the seller to send you an additional photograph which shows the hologram. Most legitimate DVDs now carry a hologram.
  • Does the DVD come in a plastic case or card box?
  • Illegal copies often are packaged in a polythene wallet with no hard case. Official DVDs come in well produced packaging in heavy duty card or plastic hard cases.
  • Is the film title hand written on the DVD disc itself?
  • If so, it is likely to be a pirated DVD. Official DVDs have properly printed artwork covering the whole of one side of the disc.
  • Is the DVD’s release date the right one?
  • Additional Advice from FACT for buying DVDs safely on Tazbar:

    To minimise the risk of buying a pirated DVD through Tazbar, FACT recommends some basic steps. Many of these steps are those that are recommended as part of any Tazbar purchase:

    Read the item description very carefully and make sure that you know exactly what you’re buying. If you’re unsure, ask the seller to clarify any questions or concerns you may have. They are normally very happy to help you if it means they will get a sale. Learn as much as you can about the seller. Check their feedback – not just the score, but also dig deeper and look out for some of the following:

    • whether the person has been buying a lot of low-value items, because they may have been doing so to build up their feedback score.
    • the kinds of items that they have been buying or selling – make sure that the person’s Tazbar record makes them look like either an established DVD retailer or a private individual selling a used DVD.
    • how long they have been registered on the site – if they have been trading for a reasonable period of time, with a positive feedback score, they are more likely to be a trusted seller..
    • Ask the seller questions – where they bought the DVD from, whether they have a retail shop or what their company number is. Unscrupulous sellers will tend not to answer such questions or their answers will be evasive.
    • If you are buying, make sure that you are paying with PayPal. It is a much more secure way of paying on Tazbar than any other because it offers purchase protection to buyers.
    
    
    • Visit the FACT website