Vintage Pornography cons and hurdles

**thunderfly** · October 2nd, 2013, 06:55 PM

The mid to late seventies were, undoubtedly, the 'golden age' of porn but in the UK, 'hard core' porn was still illegal. There were many scammers that took advantage of the fact that demand for hard core porn was high and many punters (including myself) were frequently ripped-off when believing they were getting the real thing. The scammers knew that no one would dare to complain and, if they did, they wouldn't have a leg to stand on.
Here are one or two cons I fell for:

The cover of the mag was hard but the pages inside were censored with black disks covering the explicit bits. As it was shrinkwrapped, you didn't find this out until you got home from your trip to Soho.

The cover was censored but you were led to believe the shrinkwrapped mag was uncensored inside 'cos it said so on the cover - it wasn't.

Sending off for supposedly hard core porn by mail order but when it arrived it was either censored or not explicit (if it arrived at all).

I can also remember, in the late nineties when I first had the internet but before the porn laws were relaxed, I sent off for two hard core mags from Europe. A couple of weeks later I received a letter from HM Customs at Dover informing me that my package had been opened and my magazines confiscated and destroyed

and that I could either accept this and it would be left as it is or, if I challenged it, I would face a charge of smuggling indecent material. Obviously, I let it go.

The things we suffer for a decent bit of smut.

**charliels531** · October 2nd, 2013, 07:04 PM

One of the many ways in which we are separated by a common language has to do with the idea of free speech. In the United States we argue about this stuff a lot, but virtually all Americans would agree that by our standards Britain is a terribly repressive society. In particular, your libel laws are incomprehensible to us. On the other hand, as I understand it, if the official censor passes a written work, no suit can be brought. Weird.

October 2nd, 2013, 06:55 PM	#1
thunderfly Vintage Member Join Date: Sep 2013 Posts: 896 Thanks: 6,620 Thanked 11,386 Times in 896 Posts	Vintage Pornography cons and hurdles The mid to late seventies were, undoubtedly, the 'golden age' of porn but in the UK, 'hard core' porn was still illegal. There were many scammers that took advantage of the fact that demand for hard core porn was high and many punters (including myself) were frequently ripped-off when believing they were getting the real thing. The scammers knew that no one would dare to complain and, if they did, they wouldn't have a leg to stand on. Here are one or two cons I fell for: The cover of the mag was hard but the pages inside were censored with black disks covering the explicit bits. As it was shrinkwrapped, you didn't find this out until you got home from your trip to Soho. The cover was censored but you were led to believe the shrinkwrapped mag was uncensored inside 'cos it said so on the cover - it wasn't. Sending off for supposedly hard core porn by mail order but when it arrived it was either censored or not explicit (if it arrived at all). I can also remember, in the late nineties when I first had the internet but before the porn laws were relaxed, I sent off for two hard core mags from Europe. A couple of weeks later I received a letter from HM Customs at Dover informing me that my package had been opened and my magazines confiscated and destroyed and that I could either accept this and it would be left as it is or, if I challenged it, I would face a charge of smuggling indecent material. Obviously, I let it go. The things we suffer for a decent bit of smut.

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October 2nd, 2013, 07:04 PM	#2
charliels531 Vintage Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Seattle Posts: 4,909 Thanks: 42,425 Thanked 62,691 Times in 4,879 Posts	One of the many ways in which we are separated by a common language has to do with the idea of free speech. In the United States we argue about this stuff a lot, but virtually all Americans would agree that by our standards Britain is a terribly repressive society. In particular, your libel laws are incomprehensible to us. On the other hand, as I understand it, if the official censor passes a written work, no suit can be brought. Weird.