When is it a different release? Rentals, stickers and bootlegs

You have a tape or disc that looks almost like an entry already in the home video catalog, but not quite. Maybe it has a shop's sticker on it, or a different case, or the word "Rental" on the disc. Do you add it as its own release, or add your copy to the one that's there?

The Filmogs community argued most of these cases out in its forums between 2018 and 2019, and the answers still hold. They come down to one question: who made the difference? If the distributor or its factory made it, it can be a separate release. If a shop, a rental store or an owner made it later, it is the same release, and the difference goes in the notes or on your own copy.

Rental copies

Distributors often made a separate rental edition for video shops. It might have its own catalog number, a "Rental" or "Rental Copy" label printed on the disc or sleeve, a different case, or no retail barcode at all. That is a release in its own right, because the distributor made it that way. The UK Red Cliff DVD is one: the disc label says "Rental Copy".

A retail copy that a shop rented out is different. Video stores put their own stickers on discs, wrote their own stock numbers on them and often moved them into the store's own cases. MBJensen explained it in a 2019 thread: the store did that to track the disc, "it was still the same release that was supplied to them." Add your copy to the retail release and mention the store in your copy's notes, or in the release notes if it helps someone identify a copy.

Two details from the same thread:

• Call it a rental release, not an "ex-rental". Every rental copy that reaches a collector has left the store; the term describes your copy's history, not the release.
• A store's own replacement cover is not a release cover. If you only have the disc in a store case, the disc goes under its release and the case stays off the entry.

Stickers

A sticker the shop added, such as a price tag, a store name or a "2 for £10" offer, never makes a new release. A sticker the distributor put on every copy can. falsepriest put it simply for the Filmogs staff: a manufacturing difference counts, a sticker added at the rental store doesn't. If you aren't sure who applied it, ask on the forum before adding a new entry.

Store exclusives

Some releases were made only for one chain: a Target cover, a Best Buy SteelBook, a Walmart bonus disc. The chain made a deal with the distributor, and the distributor made the product, so it is a separate release. The Target edition of La La Land, with its own O-card, is an example. Add the chain as a company on the release with the Retailer role.

Different codes, same disc

Big releases were pressed more than once. Two copies can have different matrix or SID codes in the ring round the hole and still be the same release, because the factory changed and nothing else did. Add the second set of codes to the existing entry. DVD codes explained shows how.

If the codes and packaging match but the disc plays something different, such as a new set of trailers before the menu, that is a separate release. It's hard to spot, so say in the notes what you compared.

Things that do make a new release

Anything the distributor changed when it made a new batch:

• a new catalog number or barcode
• a different case, slipcase or O-card (see packaging types)
• a different region, video standard or aspect ratio
• a different cut of the film, or different extras
• new cover art, or a cover in another language

The general case is in variants and limited editions.

Promos and screeners

A promotional copy or screener was made by the distributor and handed out, even if it was never sold. That counts. So do free discs given away with a magazine or newspaper.

Bootlegs, counterfeits and home recordings

Filmogs didn't take these, and ctlgs hasn't written a different rule, so the same line holds. Filmogs borrowed its definitions from Discogs: a bootleg is an unauthorised recording of a live show or broadcast, a counterfeit is an unauthorised copy packaged to look like the original, and a pirate copy is an unauthorised copy in its own packaging. A tape you recorded off the television, or a DVD-R you burned, isn't a release either.

What matters is not the format. The question came up in a 2019 thread about wrestling promotions that sell their own shows on DVD-R. falsepriest, for the Filmogs staff, answered: "whether or not something is considered a bootleg is less about the format, more about whether the distributor has the legal right to make and distribute copies of original content." A small company selling its own work on burned discs is making releases. Someone burning other people's films onto the same discs is not.

The hard cases are factory-pressed unofficial discs, the kind sold in shops in parts of Asia for years. Contributors disagreed about these. Some, including sixandnine, wanted them recorded because for some films they are the only version people could buy. No rule came out of it. If you have one, ask on the forum first.

Digital copies

A download code that came in the box belongs to the physical release; mention it in the notes. A film you only own as a file isn't a release here. The catalog records objects.

When in doubt

Add your copy to the closest existing release and write what's different in the notes, then ask on the forum: a case that comes up once usually comes up again, and the answer helps the next person holding the same box.