Chinese Pirated DVDs and U.S. Customs??

[ineedsomecheese]

While living in China for a year, I accidentally amassed a collection of over 100 DVDs, which at the price of 6RMB each, I assume are pirated. I am returning home shortly, and am considering what to do with them.

Does anyone know the possible implications of taking them home with me to the USA? I can play them on my computer, as well as on a rather compact DVD player I bought in China that I could bring. If U.S. Customs for some reason stopped me and had a problem, what could the punishment be? What is the likelihood of any sort of problem?

They're kept in a zip-up CD case, not in their packaging. The DVDs all look legit enough, except that there's obvious Chinese and poor English all over them. Would checking them or carrying them on make a difference?

It would be nice to take them home -- solely for person use -- but if there's going to be much chance of a problem, I'd rather just ditch them here. Anyone know from experience? I would be going into LAX from Beijing if that matters.

[magores]

"I'm sorry Mr. Customs Officer. What did you say? These are pirated? Really? Oh My God! I had no idea! Of course I will let you take them and dispose of them for me. May I leave now?"

[adrianlondon]

You tell customs ...

They're yours, you're not selling them, and that's what DVDs look like when you buy them in China. Most of them are in Mandarin only and you bought them to help learn Chinese. They came from a proper shop, not some dodgy bloke who runs into a hutong whenever a new person walks too close to him.

[trevelyan]

"Goodness gracious, I've been framed!"

[eeraser]

"No Habla Ingles"

[xuechengfeng]

I would imagine if they are in a case, you would be OK. The customs inspections aren't too thorough, most of the time.

[kdavid]

If you get stopped and they find them there's a 99% chance they'll be confiscated. One of the last things any of the teachers at my school do before they go home is give away all of their DVDs.

[Jianwen Yang]

，your thought is very dangerous, I advised you don't take the advencture. If you don't know how to process these pirated DVDs, you can give them to me. That is a perfect way.

[simonlaing]

The rule is about 500 DVDs.

Customs people espicially CHinese are notoriously lax on these things

There was a Russian trader who had a green card to the US and was taking literally suitcases pack full of DVDs at a time and then went on Russian Call girl chat websites to bragg about it. The FBI was annoyed about it so they sent the info to the Shanghai police who caught him at home with stacks and stacks of DVDS.

Recently, like a few months ago An american was arrested aswell for bringing a suitcase full of dvds .

If it is under 500 and obviously not for resale it won't be and issue. (I do it all the time, my parents in Europe like US TV shows.)

Have fun,

Simon:)

[Lu]

See several other threads about this question. If you get caught, your DVDs are confiscated and you have to pay a fine. I doubt it will help if you say you didn't realize they are illegal. But usually, you won't get caught.

[Luobot]

If you do get caught, the problem is that you lied about it on your signed customs declaration form. On the form, it tells you the penalties, which I don't remember offhand, but see if you can find it at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/vacation/sample_declaration_form.xml

I've heard second-hand of someone who was caught by customs with fake expensive golf clubs. He's now flagged so that every time he comes back home, he's checked, which is a hassle. You can always argue that you weren't aware of the DVD's lack of authenticity (especially if they're Chinese language films as opposed to Hollywood movies), but you can't argue about the fact that you neglected to declare it.

In fact, US residents are legally allowed to bring back $800 worth of (non-counterfeit) goods without paying any duty, but you still must declare it or take your chances. Chinese language DVD's that aren't produced in the US are presumably not counterfeit.

The form states:

U.S. residents are normally entitled to a duty-free exemption of $800 on items accompanying them.

Visitors (non-U.S. Residents) are normally entitled to an exemption of $100.

That covers alot of DVD's for US residents. Then it's just everything else you're carrying that you have to worry about.

[wushijiao]

I've never heard of customs taking DVD's. But I suppose you are taking a risk.

As far as pirated golf clubs, how does that make sense? Wouldn't the clubs be sub par, as far as quality (pun intended).

[Luobot]

As far as pirated golf clubs, how does that make sense? Wouldn't the clubs be sub par, as far as quality (pun intended).

Let me see if I can make sense of this ... in golf, a lower score (subpar) is better, so subpar clubs have an above par value to the customs officer who confiscated them. (pun appreciated )

[wushijiao]

Let me see if I can make sense of this ... in golf, a lower score (subpar) is better, so subpar clubs have an above par value to the customs officer who confiscated them. (pun appreciated )

Hehe...I never even realized that saying "sub par" is used wrongly.

I see the logic in taking back DVD's. But when you take back something that actually has a function, would it make sense to take back an above par (?) set of clubs? How much face can you win by shooting a 110?

Of course, I suppose the main golf club brands might have factories on the Mainland, which might sell the real thing, on the side, for cheap.

[Luobot]

I don’t directly know the person, but I suspect he was giving them as a gift to someone in the US who may be impressed by the brand name but wouldn’t know the difference between a counterfeit and the real thing. High quality copies make popular gifts (especially to the Customs official who confiscates them ).

[cdn_in_bj]

As an aside, I've purchased some legit DVDs here and the cost was quite low compared to overseas (I guess it would have to be, given all the daobans). If I remember correctly, they were 20-30 RMB each. So you could use this as a guideline for your customs declaration, but on the otherhand they may ask to see receipts.

[calif2nanning]

I see lots of bad advice on this thread. You might be violating several federal laws................why risk it over a few movies??????? With all the media hype about Chinese pirated goods is it worth the potential trouble?

I'ts just hollywood crap! Not worth ANY risk.

[Rincewind]

I agree with calif2nanning. The customs officials are aware of the DVD piracy in China and are looking for people importing the disks. I think a holiday maker bring back one or two disks might just get a talking to but someone who's been in china for a long time and is bringing back a substantial number would be quite a different matter. According the the copyright notice at the start of one of my DVD's, the penalty in the US for this felony is up to 5 years inside plus a large fine. While you're unlikely to get as harsh a deal as that, I don't see why they'd let you off with just a warning.

Give the disks to your school or to some pupils. I'm sure they'd be glad to have some English films to watch or use in class.