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British Video Recordings Act 1984 Invalid

Posted by timothy on from the slight-reprieve dept.

chrb writes "BBC News is reporting that the British Video Recordings Act 1984 is invalid due to a 25 year old legal blunder. The Thatcher government of the day failed to officially "notify" the European Commission about the law, and hence it no longer stands as a legal Act. There will now be a period of around three months before the Act can be passed again, during which time it will be entirely legal to sell any video content without age-rated certifications."

7 of 340 comments (clear)

  1. OMG, freedom. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What are we going to do with it?

    1. Re:OMG, freedom. by Alzheimers · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Those "no-longer restricted videos" have as much to do with teaching sex as a monster truck rally has to do with teaching you how to drive.

    2. Re:OMG, freedom. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The whole idea of the European *Union* is that part of the sovereignty is sacrificed for something beneficial, like open borders (good for the economy), and reducing the likelyhood of war between European countries (you can think of the EU as a response to two world wars).

      Not everybody is happy about that, of course, partly because the EU is not as democratic as it should be. In some countries the EU constitution was voted away in a referendum because of that.

    3. Re:OMG, freedom. by imamac · · Score: 5, Insightful

      A european country in the EU will eventually end up just as "sovereign" as a state in the US.

  2. Hurray?! by sqrt(2) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So when society DOESN'T collapse into anarchy, are they going to realize this law was idiotic and unnecessary and not pass it again?

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  3. Re:Hang On by Dr.+Hok · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Can a British lawyer please tell me at what point notification of the European Commission became a requirement for an Act of Parliament to become legally binding? Surely such a surrender of sovereignty was exactly the sort of thing Thatcher opposed?

    You call that surrender of sovereignty? Think again. The government didn't have to ask for permission to pass this law, it was only supposed to inform the European Commission. In other words: make it public, so their European partner countries know what's happening in their neighborhood. That's just common sense.

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  4. Re:This is absurd by EddyPearson · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Thats not how we do it in the UK mate. Here we make as many laws as possible, criminalizing as many people as we can. This so that when we decide we don't like them anymore there's a quick exit waiting. It also makes it easier for the police to root out the bad guys. When everybody has committed at least one crime, gives them leverage.

    This was an embarressing oversight, normal service will be resumed shortly.

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