Please help anyone. I was a winner on a lot of 150 dvds from eBay a couple of month ago. The seller sent them and give me the tracking number. I waited for more than a month but the package hasn't arrived in way. I tried to track in USPS service and it says ' Inbound Into Customs '. I belived it have been seized by them.

I try to contact the seller again and ask whether they are real or unauthorised piece. He said they are unauthorised. Which mean bootleg or pirated movies ?

Damn it !...What should I do , please help !

I am worry if the customs take legal action against me and further to FBI investigation .

Will they fine , jail , or else against me or the seller?

-- anthony labatta (freakyman@aol.com), December 02, 2002

Answers

You're screwed. Totally screwed. I doubt you will go to jail, but you have almost no chance of getting your DVDs. Ordering 150 DVDs from a foreign seller was VERY VERY foolish if you live in the USA. US law allows you to buy one copy, that's ONE copy, not 10, not 100, but ONE copy, of audio CDs, VCDs, DVDs, etc. for private use. This is the result of court cases in the 1980s involving the importation of vinyl records and audio CDs. If you buy multiple copies of any single title, you are considered a dealer and in possible violation of US laws regarding copyrights and royalty payments. Any time you order more than a handful or titles at one time, say 3 to 5, you run the risk of customs getting interested in your package. When they saw 150 DVDs in one order, they assumed you bought bootlegs. I have known of cases where US customs has simply assumed merchandise they seized was bootleg when in fact it was not. Once US customs seizes your package, you will never get it back. If you REALLY want to, you can hire an attorney to fight them. The only way you will win is if you have no duplicate titles AND the merchandise is legitimate. Also, you will have to convince a judge who can't tell the difference between bootleg and legit DVDs that your stuff is legitimate. You may have to answer questions about why on earth you wanted to buy 150 DVDs at once if you had no intention of re-selling them. You should be aware that if you go to court, US customs may get pissed at you and decide to make an example of you. Consult an attorney who specializes in US customs related matters if you wish, but basically you are screwed. My advice is to forget about it, hope customs will forget about you (they probably will), and learn a very valuable and expensive lesson. Since US customs got involved, that means your seller is overseas, most likely in Asia, and US customs will almost certainly do nothing against him.

-- Root (root@yahoo.moc), December 02, 2002.

I ordered 5 movies , differnt titles , and they got seized by Customs in Indianappolis , Indiana. Why I have no idea, I waited 3 weeks for these movies and got nothing. So I contacted FED-EX and they told me that my package had been seized by the government. It really sucks. I really know what your feeling.

-- Matt (MEAirForce1947@aol.com), January 21, 2003.

Well you didn't really think they were legit at those prices, did you? I have seen those ads for 150 different DVDs for $200-400. Obviously they arent originals. Customs probably know who the seller is and waits for packages. However, I doubt any legal action will ensue...they can't prove you knew they were bogus copies.

-- Kevin Burke (KevinBurkeJr@hotmail.com), February 13, 2003.