egafd.com

I ordered some films from a website, they sent a couple and now they have said they won't send anymore for another month to prevent customs confiscation. Is this normal?

Not yet, i thought it was a bit weird, i e-mailed them asking when the rest of the dvds would be sent and they wrote back the reply about the customs, so i wrote back to them and said seeing as it's not illegal then why do i have to wait. They haven't replied yet.

No - this sounds rather dodgy to me. Customs should not have any problems anymore with material that would be likely to get an R18 certificate here. The usual caveats - watersports (why??), scat, animals, fisting (why??), etc. - apply of course.

Might be worth naming the place you purchased these goods from here. Others on the forum may have positive/negative experiences of them.

Mike

Correct me if Im wrong but I think the import of uncertified porn it is still technically illegal so customs therefore can seize it?

There is a level of tolerance now which exists now basically means they normally wont seize anything which would be passed as R18 in the UK BUT they still can if they so desire - I think lol

Jay

'I think the import of uncertified porn it is still technically illegal'

C+E are a law unto themselves
the C+E website says - oops they've changed the link

http://www.hmce.gov.uk/channelsPortalWe ... e=document
has a pdf about
'A Customs guide for travellers entering the UK'

says this about prohibeted goods 'PORNOGRAPHIC MATERIAL other than that which depicts the type
of consensual sexual activity between adults which can be legally
purchased in the UK.'

This sloppy piece of text (I can legally own and buy scat in this country can't I ?) is what customs has on their website.




If value of goods is more than ?18 you could be liable for vat.

you can't buy scat because police advice to the bbfc is that such material is liable to be found obscene by a jury.

I would disagree. You can buy scat and you can legally own it.
The advice from the BBFC is not legally binding. They aren't lawyers or court judges.

I've never heard of anyone being found guilty of 'buying scat' (correct me if I'm wrong).
Of course potentially c+e can stop it if they think it is 'obscene'. The main problem is 'distribution'.

Absolutely correct - but C+E, as mentioned previously, are laws unto themselves. They can (and do) stop whatever the hell they like, and place the burden of proof on the recipient to fight back against their decision (innocent until proven guilty? Aye, right ...)

However, when the government was defeated in the courts and had to allow hard-core pornography (after the BBFC had recognised the reality of the situation and allowed a handful of mild hardcore titles to be passed at R18) it duly issued a number of guidelines of practices that it would not allow (based on what criteria? No-one knows ...). These include:

Watersports
Fisting
Scat
Humiliation
Sexual Violence
Animals (already covered by the Prevention of Cruelty To Animals Act, but hey, it got HMG a few headlines ...)
Children (already covered by the Protection of Children Act, but hey, it got HMG a few headlines ...)

However, it is not now - and never has been - illegal to own a video depicting an act that might be found obscene in a court of law (other than animals and children, but as they are covered by other legislation they are irrelevant here) if you do not intend to distribute it. So, if C+E don't intercept your "Best Of Scat" or "Uromania" DVD then you're okay - you can't be done for possessing such an item. Though if you import 20 of them at once you could - theoretically - be done for conspiracy to supply.

If what you're importing aligns with BBFC/Government guidelines for R18 material then C+E *should* allow it through - that's the law. But it's up to you to prove them wrong if they decide to stop it. This is in complete contradiction to democractic legal process, of course ... but it's been many years since trivial things like democracy and the rights of the individual mattered to HMG.

Mikey

Basically what you say is correct, Mikey. It is very unlikely that once you are actually in possession of a film, the police would take any action, unless it showed sexual abuse of children or extreme animal abuse. In such cases most people would expect them to prosecute. Cruelty to animals in the making of films was made illegal in 1937 in this country and it is not relevant whether the film was made here or abroad. The cruelty has got to be inflicted for the purpose of making a film. It's ok to film a bullfight for example. The customs are a different kettle of fish. It is totally unpredictable what they are likely to seize and given the hassle of trying to get it back they usually get away with it.