I purchased the DVD of the small documentary Alien Boy. I looked at the underside (which I always do after the last time I got burned). The title, "Alien Boy" was spelled in letters and no barcode. So, possibly it was--buuuuuuut, this was a very small release of a documentary that was made for humanitarian purposes (see their site: http://www.alienboy.org/ ). I purchased it to give to my documentary class's meager film library for students.

Can a small title have writing in place of the barcode and be a legitimate copy?

Ugh.

Sounds like that one mysterious manufacturer which stamps titles in the middle. They often also have the letters "LMW CA" stamped on them, don't know if that refers to their name or not. They usually do stuff from smaller companies and lots of porn, and many times the unused sides of single-layer discs have a few minutes of color bars on them, stamped as "DVD BLANK".

Nah. Sounds like they make copies themselves and self-distribute. The #'s on those can be in the 100's (which is a very tiny run).

There is no federal regulation requiring bar codes on products. Most distributors and retail stores require it but if one is privately distributing the item themselves, it doesn't have to have one.

Great documentary though. Harrowing, and it stuck with me days after watching it last year.