[Slowhand] Re: geographical - Leo

[PM]

> PM wrote :
> 
> <My two cents from Austria (European Union):
> <Twice a year I get a form from the customs asking
> for
> <the value of the content. No matter whether the
> value
> <is stated on the package or not. Recently I went to
> <the customs asking for that. The guy told me, he's
> <sorry but they HAVE to do some random tests. This
> <happens, as I stated, maximum twice a year and
> causes
> <boring two/three additional days to delivery.
> That's
> <all. And don't forget, it happens maximum twice
> within
> <about 300 mailings. I don't know ONE single person
> <that had really serious problems with the customs.
> <Neither from here in Europe/the European Union, nor
> <from elsewhere. The related storys I heart came
> always
> <"according to reports". 
> 
> Well Peter, I was caught by Customs overhere and it
> wasn't to ask me about the value of the package that
> was mailed to me.
> It was about my illegal activities mailing illegal
> copied cd's out overseas - all boots.
> Customs were not the worst thing. After their letter
> I
> got one from IFPI. They asked me to pay a fee for
> several hundreds of € for each illegal cd.
> I could make an arrangement - I was lucky with the
> mailed cd's, they were all from taper-friendly bands
> -
> but many other traders didn't succeed in trying this
> and they had to pay. Others saw their collection
> confiscated - among them a long-time
> Stones-collector
> who did some nice work for the trading-community and
> still had to pay.
> There really isn't any problem with mail coming into
> the EC or circulating in the EC; the problem is with
> mail going overseas from within the EC.
> Let's face it, this is a real threath and some among
> us have to be very carefull. It is known IFPI keeps
> addresses and exchanges them with the international
> partners.
> Leo.

Leo, 
you're the first telling me directly from such
personal experiences. 
A propos - a good friend, he supplied with my first
boots (tapes then), was caught years ago. All
confiscated. Thousands of boots, he started collecting
in the sixties ... BUT he made one mistake. In the
early days of internet he opened a trading site and he
asked money. A bargain, he never made a cent of profit
at all, today we would say b&p, but he even asked only
half for the blanks (tapes and later beginning with
cds). It was the police to come, not the customs.
After checking all his notes, they awared, he paid
instead of earning. Therefore he has got back
anything, LPs, tapes, CDs, computer - all. And he had
to pay "only" for the lawyer. But he doesn't trade
anymore and the community lost a great member with
many, many gems. 
The hint to the local police came from the US. 
Money - that might be the main point. I guess that
most people out of the trading community would not
believe that sharing really means sharing without any
further interest. Looking at eBay it's hard to believe
that most of the involved people just share and spread
the tunes just for fun and first of all for free. 
But I'm optimistic because I see the future of sharing
in online sharing. 
I'm sorry for your bad experience. But it doesn't
seem, you are offended by my post ;-) I also only
stated my personal experiences without intending to
offend anyone and I've got a new experience in return.

Kind regards.
Peter


	

	
		
___________________________________________________________
Gesendet von Yahoo! Mail - Jetzt mit 100MB Speicher kostenlos - Hier anmelden: http://mail.yahoo.de