Rocky Horror Preservation Foundation

Tuesday, 13-May-2008 15:54:26 PDT

Article Gallery

Illegal Shock DVD's hit Ebay
November 22nd, 2002
By Jim "Cosmo" Hetzer

Recently, on Ebay there have been a number of Shock Treatment DVD's surfacing. Upon an independent investigation by rhpf.org, we've found that they are DVD-R's being mastered from an old copy of Shock Treatment from the late 80's VHS release. Which means purchasing this DVD-R you may run the risk of it not playing in your DVD player, since not all DVD players (both computer and home units) will play DVD-R’s. And with the master is coming from an old tape the quality will most likely be poor.

I am not trying to come across as holier than thou; I’ve made copies of tapes in the past but just for archival purposes. I would never consider selling them, especially ones of poor quality that run a high risk of not working in the buyers’ player.

I’ve seen some of these DVD’s go for as high as $30. For that money you could buy a brand new sealed copy of Shock Treatment on VHS that is much better quality. There is really no advantage to buying these DVD’s. You can’t say your buying it for the extras because there aren’t any. You can’t say your buying it for the quality because it’s low quality. Even the fake cover art looks bad.

Ebay has a very strickt policy on bootleg items located here. Ebay is usually pretty fast to respond to bootleggers. I imagine it will be shutting down the auctions very soon. I've spoken with one person who bought the DVD and they were quite upset with the quality of it.

My advice is don’t waste your money on these bootlegs; wait until it gets officially released or buy it on VHS. Even Plan 9 from Outer Space got released thanks to Image Entertainment I think it is only a matter of time before Shock Treatment will be.

This is a gallery of selected news stories and commentary regarding The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The comments written here do not necessarily represent those of the board members of The Rocky Horror Preservation Foundation or any sites or causes it supports. The comments written in these articles reflect only those of the individual authors.