In 2009 something amazing happened. It was a sudden revelation almost totally (if not completely) ignored by the weak, hypocritical UK television news channels and which barely got anything but a short inside mention in a few newspapers.
Even many movie websites barely used a buried forum thread to mention it.
And yet we have now learnt that the dreaded VRA (Video Recordings Act) of 1984 was never officially a law at all!

This statement on the website of the now (until Big Brother Goverment and 'interested parties' reforge their shackles for us) 50% pointless BBFC- British Board of Film Classification - says it nice and officially;
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has notified the BBFC of a serious issue which has come to light in relation to the Video Recordings Act 1984 (VRA).
Because the then British Government failed to notify the European Commission under the Technical Standards and Regulations Directive (83/189/EEC) of the Act, the VRA is no longer enforceable against individuals in the United Kingdom.
The Government has said that its priority is to remedy this situation as soon as possible and has urged the industry in the interim to comply with the provisions of the VRA on a voluntary and best practice basis.
The BBFC will continue to classify video works submitted by distributors on a voluntary basis for this period.

Lets put it less officially now.
It turns out that for 25 years the residents, companies and businessmen of the UK involved in the VHS/DVD (even laserdisc and BETA) distribution, sale and rental of movies for home viewing have had to comply with a non-existent law which, throughout those 25 years, has seen;


Video shop shelves cleared of thousands upon thousands of individual non-certified films. Literally millions of VHS/BETA tapes.

Movies banned outright.

Hundreds upon hundreds of VHS/DVD distributers, for a quarter of a century, forced to pay millions to the BBFC for them to certify movies and DVD extras.

Distributers prsoecuted, fined and in one case sent to prison.

Video shop owners raided, their shops closed down and slyly put out of business by fines and lenghty and expensive court proceedings.

Countless millions spent on court cases and policing.

Countless newspaper scare stories all over the country that were never actually news stories after all.

Countless police man hours and energy spent of enforcing a law that never was a law.

Movie collectors had their homes raided, were fined, had their property confiscated, and were even imprisoned and at the very least had their names dragged through the mud by the local Press and TV news (often tipped off by Police and investigators) and witch hunting national newspapers. I know...I was one!

All Because the 'law' stated that only BBFC certified movies could ever be rented and sold in the UK.
And yet the 'law' that stated that, it now turns out, was never legally put into law at all!
And as of September 2009, it still isn't a law! So right now no movie, other than for the cinema, need ever go anywhere near the BBFC or have a certificate!

Already current cases against people charged under the 'VRA' are being dismissed (after all the months of waiting and possible public ridicule for those NOW FALSELY accused) but what of all those people, throughout 25 years of cases, already charged and dragged through the courts and found guilty (and even imprisoned) for supposedly breaking a law that never was?
What about all those millions and millions of pounds spent by distributors (often struggling independent companies) to the BBFC to be able to get their films even on the shelves?
What about all those distributors who wasted huge amounts of money over the years going through the BBFC only to have their film refused a certificate (it turns out was never needed of course!) and so basically banned?
What about all those video shop owners who had their businesses ruined or put to massive expense?

WILL ANY OF THEM GET ANY COMPENSATION? ANY APOLOGY? ANY JUSTICE?
Don't hold your breath.

It seems that even when a so called justice system is so utterly at fault it upholds a law that never actually existed...those hurt, robbed and punished by this law and that system will never find any actual justice at all.