TAPE PIRACY

[Kieran]

There was a phone-in interview (which I have on tape) on CITV during 1988, speaking to the very first winning team.

Other than that, I cannot recall any other interview being conducted by Tommy Boyd, but I could be wrong about that.

Tim Child was interviewed on a kids weekend show (Take Two), and asked to give cash prizes instead of Spurs etc! But that was not CITV specific, nor was TC a contestant!

Perhaps he's talking of the character appearences on the show...

[Billy]

I'd place a very fair bet on that it's just a fuzzy nth generation copy of the CiTV Mark Wickson interview, 'cus that did the rounds for years before this illegal eBay stuff started.

[knightmaredave]

well its not on whoever is making money should be done 4 it
granada would do their nut!

[Fidjit]

Here's another one!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... eName=WDVW

[JoeGrocottJames]

Here's another one!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... eName=WDVW

Hmm, he just says 'Knightmare Items', so we don't know with complete certainty that it actually includes episodes of Knightmare, which I wouldn't class as 'items'. Items, I think, would be things like the Knightmare books, board game, perhaps the computer games as well.

[Fidjit]

He's hiding it up though, if it were books why would he be so scared to mention it...

[Fidjit]

Look at this title too:

KNIGHTMARE 80s CLASSIC TV SHOWS **************

It looks as though he gave it all away, it may not be but it's still a number one in my book. He's covered it up so no-one can track him, if it were books or board games he'd specify it...

[balrog]

Let's face it. We all like Knightmare. Some people have got video's of the shows, some haven't.

People who haven't are buying this stuff illegally off the net because they can't get it by buying it on video or DVD or legally by any other means.

There is obviously a demand for this as 1) The seller wouldn't be selling it and 2) The buyer wouldn't buy it.

The makers should release it on DVD or video or better still run the whole lot on terrestrial TV again.

The eBay sellers are providing a means by which to obtain the shows as there is no other way to get them.

Those of you who have recordings of the show on tape then you may not know that it is illegal to keep a recording made off television for more than 3 days. Now I’m sure we’ve all got video tapes from years ago with programmes on that we watch occasionally. However, technically, you have broken the law.

I'm not saying good luck to the eBay sellers. I think sharing the tapes as a means of enjoyment should be fine. You shouldn't profit from passing a tape. £5.00 for tape and postage should about the price. That way, nobody is profiting from this and more people can enjoy Knightmare.

After all isn't that what we want..?

[TheBrollachan]

It is still illegal, and can get sellers in very big trouble. I very much doubt that people like Tim Child are happy with it.

There is obviously a demand for this as 1) The seller wouldn't be selling it

Or just a case that they have found that they can make a fair bit of money by selling copies on Ebay. I seriously doubt they sell copies because they want others to watch knightmare, rather than the money they can make.

The makers should release it on DVD or video or better still run the whole lot on terrestrial TV again.

Sales like these on Ebay are more likely to hinder any potential official release of Knightmare on video or DVD. Also the makers are Televirtual (formerly Broadsword), not ITV Plc.

Also have your own personal copy of Knightmare, and selling copies of the videos for money is slightly different. Mainly in that with your own personal copy it is for your own personal viewing, whereas with selling those copies you are making money at other people expense.

[Malefact]

Tape trading has gone on in the past on a non-profit basis and (the unofficial situation was that) the owners of the copyright of the made programmes (i.e. Granada) didn't mind that so much. However, tapes were made available on eBay at rather inflated prices, such that it was a blatant attempt at making a profit. This caused Granada to officially notice the tape trading, and asked (as it appeared to me) Tim Child to warn us off. To cut a long story short, it was the use of eBay by a selfish and unscrupulous individual that totally blew the gaff.

eBay is a auctioning site, plain and simple. Therefore, with every item put up for sale, there is the potential for the bids to exceed cost of materials, post, packaging etc. It is also far more public. You may have noticed how, on some recent 'goods' put up for auction, that it isn't explicitly said that they are tapes. The people who have put the tapes up for sale blatantly know that they're doing wrong.

Sure, 'internal' tape traders also knew that they were doing wrong, as did their customers. I'm not going to justify either group.

Another factor to take into account, though, is that the original tape traders were around when Km was not being shown on any TV channel.

A DVD release has been discussed and petitioned for a great many times. It's unlikely to happen, same as with repeats on terrestrial TV - especially now that the whole lot has already been recently shown on Challenge.

Perhaps the biggest issue, though, is of looking to the future. Granada (as I understand it) considered doing a DVD release but the issue of tape trading caused them to shelve the idea - people already had the episodes on tape, which meant that fewer people would pounce on the DVDs; they'd have already seen the episodes many times and so the hunger to see them again wouldn't be strong enough to inspire them to shell out on DVDs.

So, tape trading kills off legitimate opportunities. Consequently, there are no royalties to pay the cast. This isn't good!

(As for keeping recordings for more than three days... how can this law possibly be enforced? )

[Fidjit]

It went for £19.09 with 20 bidders, nuff said?

[TheBrollachan]

Here's another one!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... eName=WDVW

Hmm, he just says 'Knightmare Items', so we don't know with complete certainty that it actually includes episodes of Knightmare, which I wouldn't class as 'items'. Items, I think, would be things like the Knightmare books, board game, perhaps the computer games as well.

The auction item is back up for sale on eBay, and I've found out that it is...
8 full episodes on 2 DVDs for a buy it now of £8.99

[sarcasm]
Hmmm I wonder what the chances of it being an illegal DVD are...
[/sarcasm]

[Fidjit]

This one's interesting?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... eName=WDVW

Seems as though this guy knows a lot...

[Billy]

Originally taped by Julian Smith or not, making money out of unofficial recordings is still illegal. Besides, that picture of Treguard and Majida is from knightmare.com...

[Forester]

Watching something you recorded from TV more than once is illegal too. I don't think the problem here is one of legality but of morals. It seems immoral that people are taking advantage of people's belief that Knightmare was only ever shown on CITV or the Sci-Fi channel. There's pleanty of people within the community that still copy their tapes for people at cost but just keep quiet about it.

Basically the people selling on ebay are trying to profit from:
A. People's stupidity in thinking ebay is the only place to keep things cheap from.
B. A production to which they hold no copyrights.

So the issue here is making money out of people from something they don't own and therefore a question of morals since almost everyone here who watches their tapes more than once is breaking UK copyright law.