Banned-in-Canada Visual Novels

Visual Novel Community Visual Novel Talk
#21

So thanks to this thread, I actually went and did research of customs, I now understand it cracks down on the drug and illegal animal smuggling.

However, it goes overboard sometimes.

In fact, I’ve had one of my luggage seized and searched by customs once. And they fucking confiscated two pairs of pajamas’s once. Only slightly offensive thing I could think of it is that, they’re flannel patterned. One of em was blue patterned while other one was green patterned, or was it brown patterned? I fucking forgot.

Ever since that happened, I blacklisted customs. Coz what they did was robbery. I had to sleep without pajamases I they fucking owe me a week of good night sleep. And I never fly with a luggage, except for a backpack at very least, if they try to seize anything , even food something that i’m going to eat, I will resist them and eat it right on the spot just to spite them. They’ll have to confiscate my still beating stomach, I’m pretty sure, live evisceration won’t go very well with the public.

Still, confiscated pajamases, out of all things?

Edit: What’s more, I was flying back to the state where I bought the pajamases at, I didn’t travel out of country at all whatsoever.

#22

I’ve seen stuff that was seized by customs (and sent for destruction) reappear again. And no, I am not making a joke.

for all this “we have to stop p0rn from entering”, the custom guys like to watch it themselves :lol:

EDIT: removed the bit that was offtopic

#23

I think I have already mentioned how Denmark is a pervert’s paradise. They have 0 censorship apart from child pornography AND they don’t consider 2d lolis as child pornography. Sweden does. >_<

Go Denmark! Boo Sweden!

#24

I think he was saying there that someone would abuse their power. We see this in other sectors, so I’d say its not impossible here either.

#25

I think censorship over porn is yet another instance of ‘form over substance’. Except for serious cases like occasionally busting child p0rn rings, the authority tend to go after those who are ‘easy catch’, such as isolated passangers going through airport security. At the same time, they have to at least pretend to be listening to the segment of voters who get freaked out whenever there is even a suggestion of p0rn.

Even before the era of broadband internet, I should point out that p0rn was not terribly difficult to obtain. For example, I was with my buddy at his home. We had nothing else to do, so he went to a neighbor to borrow a bunch of video tapes. I thought he was going to borrow typial stuffs like sci-fi and action flicks. No! He brought a stash of p0rn tapes! Later, it turned out that the guy who owned these video tapes went out for an errand and his parents did not bother to check up on the titles of the tapes borrowed! After these tapes were returned, the neighbor hardly said anything bad about it … no big deal.

Speaking of ‘substance over form’ – not very likely for the authority to go after p0rn industries in any significant way: Economics. A while back, a classmate of mine did a short presentation on p0rn industry for our economics class. It is a big business. Top four revenue-makers: China, Japan, South Korea, the US. (These big four are also among the largest trading countries in the world!) Hehe …

#26

I’m not sure where you live now, but I really think this song is appropriate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhnUgAaea4M

#27

Anybody got something seized when ordering from J-list?

#28

Never happened to me. I think the CBSA has a blacklist of sorts; my orders from Himeya were almost always opened, whereas I never had any problems with JAST, J-List, RightStuf, or Amazon. Incidentally, I own original copies of Critical Point, Little My Maid, Pretty Soldier War 2048 AD, and Tokimeki Check-In despite all of these titles being banned. I think all that matters is where you buy a title and how it’s packaged…

#29

Hello, I want to ask has anyone have trouble going through Canada customs at the airport? I have 6 eroge that I bought from HK and I’m starting to freak out about the stories people said about going through customs at the airport. And I’m not sure what to write on the declaration form. Anyone have ideas how to get through this? I also have my mother going back to Canada with Me, maybe that won’t raise any suspicions?

The ones I bought are: fdm 020, 018, 014, 011, 008, 005

You can find them here
http://future-digi.com/

Just click on the first blue "hot!
" icon on the left when u enter the link and u should see them

#30

I’m not a traveler myself (I wish I was, though), but an otaku friend of mine had a very unpleasant experience following his trip to Japan last summer. He bought a considerable amount of games and visual novels, and a Customs official went over every single one of them before letting him through. The official’s instructions were to seize all oversized game boxes (ie: larger than an Amaray case). My friend’s copy of Sengoku Rance was confiscated, and he had to fight to keep his copy of the PS3 LE of White Album (noting that there was an age rating on the box and that console manufacturers don’t allow obscenity of any kind on their systems). The official caved, thankfully, but my friend didn’t get Rance back and eventually had to import a second copy a few months later.

My advice would be to pick up the games, but mail them to your home address beforehand instead of taking them with you on your return flight. The customs declaration is a bit of a crapshot: gifts less than $80 and commercial goods less than $20 get by Customs scot-free, without tarifs or inspections, but if you lie about the value and something happens during transit, you can’t claim the full value of the damages if you have to file a complaint. Also, gifts have to be clearly labeled as such, ie: with giftwrap and a To-From card, so just checking off the “gift” checkbox isn’t enough. Lastly, if you lie and say that a DVD case is, for instance, a book, the fact that you tried to pass off something as something else will be noted (and used against you if you’re concealing the presence of child pornography). I’d declare the goods as “video games” or “computer games” if I were you to stay on the safe side. I’m slightly annoyed that, during my confrontation with the CBSA last year, Himeya labeled my visual novels as “toys”. Technically, that’s not wrong, but you know the perpetuated stereotype of video games being nothing more than toys for children…

Well, I hope this has been helpful. I wish you luck.

#31

Well, J-list always labeled my packages as “toys”, too. I don’t mind if the alternative would be “explicit drawings of underage characters having sex”. :lol: Even though it’s not illegal in my country either way.

#32

If so, http://www.jlist.com/category/184 becomes less attractive to me :? …
Italian Customs have not problems with packages labeled ‘games’ or ‘videogames’ (erotic or not), but importing ‘toys’ lacking the CE mark is more risky here:

http://pe.usps.com/text/imm/il_008.htm

#33

You can always ask them to put whatever label you want, I think. J-list is quite versatile on such issues.

#34

What the…? Photo albums and playing cards are illegal? Seriously!? I can understand not wanting to ship a cremated relative’s urn, but photos, postcards, and postage stamps…? What’s wrong with those? And wooden toys are okay, huh…

It’s illegal to have English and French printed in the same size on a sign here (damned Bill 101… Chinese is okay, but not English?), so we’ve both got it pretty bad. This is why I prioritize ethics over legality.

#35

well right now i have 4 VN’s and 2 other PC games (batman arkham & alice in wonderland), that should be ok i guess? i’m going to list what you suggested and not lie about not having anything. If anything happens, i’m just going to say its for my personal use and relieve my stress, heck everyone has stress and it just so happens i play VN’s to get rid of them.

btw, do you know if 18+ artbooks will pass through such as this? http://www.jlist.com/product/APO215. i asked Jlist and and they replied back saying they “think” they can ship it to Canada…

#36

I’d list them as 6 PC games on the Customs declaration if I were you (you’re free to disagree). The CBSA has the right to open any package if it feels so inclined (they typically don’t unless a shipper is blacklisted), but they’re legally obligated to declare that they have done so when they do (a yellow “Opened by the CBSA” tape will replace the original packing tape when this is the case). If an item appears to be suspicious, it may be detained for a proper inspection. If the item fails the inspection, then it’s seized as contraband and you have 90 days to file an appeal. The CBSA will notify you in writing if any of the above has occurred, more often than not via a letter they include in your original shipping box, along with instructions regarding the appeal process. I doubt it’ll happen, but if an item is seized (not to be confused with detained), let me know and I’ll link you to the paperwork you’ll need to write a proper appeal.

Personally, I don’t see any problems with trying to import a Japanese artbook from J-List, but I can’t say for sure if you’ll be safe or not since I’ve only ordered maybe a handful of things from their Japan branch in the past (that’ll change soon since I’m ordering The Devil on G-String in the very near future). The best I can tell is you’ll probably be fine, but ask that you keep your fingers crossed either way. If this was Himeya, on the other hand, I’d ask that you proceed with extreme caution; every single one of my packages from them was opened by customs, though only my most recent one had items detained (I got back all but one, and the seized one only cost $10.00).

#37

What if I bought the artbook and go through the customs? From what I know, the book is an “artbook”, and should be ok?

#38

customs can be strange

#39

To be honest, I don’t know. My intuition tells me there shouldn’t be any problems, but I’ve heard stories about people forced to stand around in public while a Customs official tears off the shrink-wrap and flips through every single page of a manga or artbook in the search for illegal content. I’ve never been through this myself, and I don’t know how commonplace such an occurrence really is… Given my recent experience with the CBSA, I’d rather play it safe than bring an artbook with me, but that’s just me and my paranoia.

Sorry I couldn’t be of more help in this department.

#40

Fucking assholes of them. I dont know how i’d be able to restrain myself cuz that’ll spoil the story of the book as they rifle through it.