I thought Germany was the land of anything goes in porn. The land of the hardest core stuff available. (Together with the Netherlands.)

Is it anything goes for German made stuff, but if it's American or other European (Private), it's suspect???

At first I thought this was basically a revenue / VAT type issue, but what with the law cited it doesn't sound like that.

-- dexplorer, confused.

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It sounds like Germany and America are mirror flipped images of each other in porn.

In America there are restrictions on what can be produced here, without risk of real expensive prosectution and possibly conviction. The "seven deadly sins".

But we can effectively import just about anything. I've not heard of much customs problems with imported Euro hardcore. (I think the US doesn't regard that as a large enough problem to pay attention to, probably.)

Whereas Germany sounds like it's the exact opposite. The logic of which TOTALLY escapes me.

--dexplorer, more confused.

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maybe I can help you about your confusion.
You're right that nearly no pornographic material is restricted here in Germany. Bestiality and child porn aren't allowed, but that's all I can think of. No other "fetish" is forbidden no matter how hardcore it is as long as it's done by consenting adults.

The German import restrictions haven't got anything to do about restricting foreign material. In fact the problem is that any kind of mail ordering pornographic material is forbidden here. You can go to a video-store or a porn-shop and buy and rent everything you want - German titles as well as foreign titles, but in Germany you even can't mailorder from a German store - at least not without any problems. There are a few German online stores offering adult movies, but I'm not sure how they're doing it legally.

The whole point behind this is the German law for protection of the youth which states that selling alcohol, pornography, etc. to youths is forbidden, and it's said that it's not possible to control this law if pornography gets sent via mail, for example because it's possible that a child receives the father's package while he isn't at home. From that point nobody can control what the child is doing with this package. That's why adults can only rent or purchase porn personally.

Personally I think this law isn't justified and outdated.

I hope I could help you loosen up your confusion a bit ;-)

But I still don't know about the consequences this is having for me or FiveStar.

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I was told a couple of years ago by one of the owners of Vivid Interactive that in most foreign countries a single company typically has exclusive distribution rights for a line (or many lines) of videos. They typically pay a steep price for this honor.

I suspect that one such company is feeling the competition from relatively inexpensive internet companies. Such a company would have a vested interest in initiating and supporting a customs/mail order investigation by providing the authorities with a list of the larger internet retailers.

I'm saddened that this has happened to you and Five Star. I don't think this is an isolated case though. We will most likely be hearing about similar stories with other retailer's shipments to Germany in the future.

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You wait along time for a bus, and then along come three at the same time!!

As I pointed out in a post a few days back, I also goot my FIRST CUSTOMS NOTICE. I know that Ireland and Gemany are different kettles of fish, but doesn't it seem coincidental, that these kinds of action seem to be happening?

I suppose what happened on Septemebr 11th may have made most countries Customs and Postal services step up their checking operations since that date, so maybe more checks and seizures in some countries will become more frequent (and unfortunate in terms of the material related to these forums). I know spesedy stated that some of his are dated since July, but are many of us here in Europe likely to lose more packages, from now on?

I still haven't heard back from Irish Customs about the package they were "examining" addressed to me, but I would hazard a guess that it may be something similar to spesedy.

Ah, well!!!...............

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Interestingly enough, the last FiveStar-packages reached me without any problems lately. I have to say that all my mail to and from the US has become MORE reliable after the terrible events from September 11th, although that's certainly kind of macabre. Maybe so many mail was backlogged, that customs couldn't keep up with the packages last month ?

I hope you're wrong, Drew. This was certainly a catastrophe if this had just been the beginning. Fortunately I haven't had any problems receiving orders from other companies, so maybe that's a reason for you to calm down, cykedout ?

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Edited by - spesedy on Oct 20 2001

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