Ned wrote:
>
> With customs it is hit and miss. You'll get stopped
> occasionally and usually when there's a pile of other
> material that isn't illegal (like a mate who lost 6 r1 dvds
> for one xxx title) so that the (alleged) thieves can have it
> away with your legit titles. Does anyone believe they
> actually destroy this material?
I want to stress that what follows below is my own take of the current situation. I don't know what makes Customs' brain work (it must be something gruesome, though) and the individual officer can pretty much make his own policy BUT:
Since this September Customs appears to have completely stopped intercepting porn originating in the EU. That DOES NOT include Excalibur, which is a US company. Up to the recent court cases that have resulted in the legal R18 stuff being sold openly importation was, as you say, hit and miss. If Customs opened the packages they invariably sent the "indecent and obscene" letter (I must have about 8 of these). After the court cases were publicised, a rumour circulated in RAME that due to EU law it is now illegal for Customs to intercept material that is legal (as in "non-criminal") in all EU countries. Until recently the UK was invoking a get-out clause in the free trade EU treaties that "individual countries can stop material being sent from another EU country if they deem it harmful to the morals of the country" (or something to that effect). Obviously it is impossible for foreign imports to be morally harmful and the same R18 versions not to be! So, the RAME rumour went, Customs has stopped pestering us.
Not content to live with rumours, I instructed several friends of mine to send me porn films from Holland, Greece and France. Their packages were invariably opened by Customs, inspected, then resealed and forwarded intact with a (yellow) notice reading "This package has been opened by HM Customs, AND ITS CONTENTS APPROVED FOR IMPORTATION" (emphasis mine).
So, stop being Eurosceptic, the evil Eurocrats seem to have saved your bacon:-)
Now, I don't know how long this will last, nor what the whole matter of classification will imply for this apparent status quo (needless to say my friends' dubbed porn did not have a BBFC label). It may well be that this angle will be used to annoy us in the future. This Saturday around 2 pm I visited Maxim's in Frith Street and literally walked into a raid; the police were only turning customers away (still, it was brown pants time

) but at the same time seizing all that precious porn

and telling the proprietor that "this is unclassified material". I obviously didn't hang around to hear more

but it does fit the theory that sources of unclassified porn may be hunted to extinction for the benefit of the ghastly licensed sex stores.
I have accordingly asked my friends to do the honours once again to check these suspicions. I will keep everybody posted of the results. When it comes to Exclaibur, I have never used them as a normal customer; my relationship with them is more professional (I have sold them once-off rights for some of my free reviews in exchange of screeners). I have read some complaints in the newsgroup, but they seem to be generally reputable. I have got said screeners from them without fail, but they have all been relayed via my Dutch friends. I would personally hesitate importing directly from the US.
Imperator