“Why don’t you have John Thompson/GGG/666 titles on your site?”
That question shows up in my email pretty much weekly.
The answer has 3 parts; licensing, records keeping, and video format. The three aren’t
completely independent, as you’ll see.
Video Format. Mr. Thompson’s titles are all produced in PAL format,
the default video format in Europe (except for that sneaky part of France that still uses SECAM.)
It won’t play on most US video systems, which require NTSC format. Mr. Thompson has little
interest in remastering his titles into NTSC. That would mean that we’d have to purchase the
distribution rights, and produce them in the US.
Licensing. In recent discussions, we found that Mr. Thompson wants a
very high licensing fee. Significantly higher than what we pay; say, DBM, Videorama or Scala.
How high? Well, if we paid the amount he’s asking, the retail price for a 666 DVD would be
around $80.
Record Keeping. Since he films in Europe, Mr. Thompson isn’t required to maintain the kind of age records required in the US under USC 2257. He has the records he needs to comply with his local laws, but they would not always satisfy the US requirements. It would take
a lot of research to pick the titles where good records exist, or extra expense on his part to create them. But make no mistake, without those records, the titles simply cannot be distributed in the US.
These aren’t permanent showstoppers. Each of them can be remedied, bargained or managed. But right now, taken as a whole, they will keep Nova and me from distributing John Thompson titles in the US.
But it doesn’t have to stop you from having them.
GGG/666 DVDs in PAL format are available from a couple of reliable European vendors; my favorite is EroDVD.nl. If you have a DVD drive on your computer, you can play PAL DVDs! If you’d
rather see Betty on your big-screen TV, there’s still an easy fix. There are over 70 DVD models available in the US that will convert PAL DVDs to NTSC output. A good bunch of them are $125 or less. (Personally, I have 2 different APEX models that I use to preview PAL DVDs.)
So, it’s not a lost cause. For a relatively small investment, you can get all the GGG/666 action that you want.
Diversified Video Associates
www.xxx-imports.com
