Posted: 1/22/2012 6:43:59 AM EDT
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http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=328321530536050&id=139652459402959 ths is what the form said: "I/we declare the the films/videos contain no obscene or immoral matter, nor any matter advocating or urging treason or insurrection against the United States, nor any threat to take the life of or inflict bodily harm upon any person in the United States."Now, the first clause I can kinda see, though "immoral" is weird and there's no standard definition of obscenity in the US, but let that go...what made my eyebrows go up my forehead and down the other side was clause two. So I called back the nice lady at FedEx –– who was only following instructions given to her by Customs –– and asked what this was all about. Apparently –– and this is only her understanding of the situation –– this is a new thing being done by Customs and Homeland Security with FedEx, UPS, and other carriers to make sure that films and videos with ideas or stories that were at odds with the United States Government didn't get into the country, as it was a form of terrorism (as further elaborated upon in the third and final clause.) She added that some DVDs showing Occupy events in London and elsewhere had gotten bounced because of the concern that these were being used to coordinate activities here (as if with the internet people actually need physical DVDs for that sort of thing but that's neither here nor there). Anyone have the real story behind this? Is our customs service censoring incoming DVDs or is this tinfoil shit? |
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Comment: aha! here you go: http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/newsroom/publications/trade/iius.ctt/iius.pdf **************** 46. Obscene, Immoral or Seditious Matter and Lottery Tickets. Section 305, Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, prohibits the importation of any book, writing, advertisement, circular, or picture containing: • Any matter advocating or urging treason or insurrection against the United States, • Any matter advocating or urging forcible resistance to any law of the United States, • Any threat to take the life of or inflict bodily harm upon any person in the United States. It also prohibits the importation of: • Any obscene book, writing, advertisement, circular, picture or other representation, figure, or image on or of paper or other material, • Any instrument or other article that is obscene or immoral, • Any drug or medicine for causing unlawful abortion that has not been approved by FDA. • Any lottery ticket, unless printed in Canada for use in a U.S.—or in some cases, other foreign—lottery. ************* How has this law survived 80 years? |
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BTW, I found the URL for the list, http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/obsc1.shtml
but according to archive.org it 404'ed in 2005. If your archive.org-fu is better than mine, you might be able to look at the earlier versions. I haven't been able to get their damn site to work for me in a couple of years now. |
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Call USC yourself and ask them.
As far as I know, USC cares only that you declare content and value USD. TONS of DVD's are shipped out of the US. The bigger problem is the Customs inspection at the destination conuntry. Many countries, especially islamic controlled nations want some statement that the images are not pornographic or anti-islamic/offensive to islamic customs/beliefs. Now, when you send a DVD or some other form of video content, it's a given that unless you're a recognized shipper, there's a very good chance your package will be selected for a closer inspection. In reality, Customs has more to do than look for porno or anti-government propaganda but if they get wind of it, they'll look for it and find it and deal with the shipper. I seriously doubt they give a flyin' rat fuck about the Occupy shit. Homeland Security may have a hard-on 'team' for the 'Occupy' bots but U.S. Customs has way more important and dangerous 'shit' to watch for in the international shipping channels. |