DVD's and Customs: Hollywood's gatekeeper

Our first adoption was the first time either of us had travelled outside of America, with the exception of a cruise or two.  We were not used to how things work.  In Guangzhou, I found a music/DVD store.  I found a ton of movies I wanted and the price was right.  I bought a bunch of them.  Unfortunately, I learned a valuable lesson.  Don't bother buying DVD's of Hollywood films outside of the country and try to bring them back.  I even had a couple I had bought a Wal-Mart in China.

As you land back in America, they pass out customs forms.  On this form, you have to state what you are bringing into the country, souvenirs, clothes, alcohol, etc.  We are honest people.  We stated what we had.  Then you have to deplane and go straight to Customs.  At this point, they check you declarations and asked questions.  Both of which are used to weed out people for inspection.  Then, you are either free to go one to you next flight or you are sent to a checker.

We got option 2.  We set our stuff down and a man comes over and has us open each bag.  He then goes through it.  Once he hit the movies, it was like a dog to a bone.  He thought he had found the mother load of traffickers.  He starts to tell us how cheap the products over there are and how all movies are pirated.  I was thinking, even at Wal-Mart?  He says he is going to give us a warning and that if we will voluntarily give up the movies, we could go one our way.  If we wanted to fight it, we could face a big fine.  We really had no choice, we gave up the movies.

Later,  I wrote my senator to complain.  The customs agent said I had voluntarily given them up.  The choices were not that great.  I learned a valuable lesson, don't buy movies from China that were made here.  Even if I had got them by customs, they probably would not have worked on our DVD player.  I will never know.  It also curtailed my buying of DVD's when they first come out.  I just wait for the markdowns.  If Hollywood is going to pay customs to sniff our their movies, I will not continue to support them.

With our future adoptions, we did buy some movies.  These were for the Pleasant Goat and the Big Big Wolf movies.  They only work on our portable player.  The kids love them.  I don't even waste my time with Hollywood movies.  I do look for things that were made in Asia that you can't get here.  They'd probably take those also.  If you want Hollywood, just wait a year or two and it will be in the bargain bin at Wal-Mart.  If you are going to another country, stick to things that you know you can't buy in your country.