Ive ordered erotic ( but not pornographic ) Laserdisctitles for years and never had problems with the german custom service.
But three months ago, they confiscated "Touch of Love", bought from an US dealer.
"Touch of Love", believe it or not.....
The material on this old Discovision is totally harmless, you can buy hundred or more more explicit titles in every supermarket here, even if you havent reached your 18th birthday yet.
It makes no sense, that they dont forward my Laserdisc, because it is forbidden to import p0rn from a third state ( outside of the EU ) in a normal shipment. Custom service agents told me, I have to prove, that it isnt p0rn. They had no Laserdiscplayer to check it. And now the funny thing: I offered to take my LD player to the custom service, so that they can review and check the "Touch of Love" Laserdisc, but they dont wanted it. Because they dont have time for this.
They threathened to ship the LD back to the sender, but the postage would be higher as the LD itself.
So I had to sign a document, that they can destroy the "Touch of Love" LD.
I dont have to pay for this destruction, very generously, or ?

They told me, that I can prevent this, if a small "FSK16 sticker" is on the LD. But the movies must resemble FSK16
(Playboy, Penthouse, Touch of Love ), not FSK18 hardcore.

Do german customs open vinyl/LD boxes for inspection?
I thought Germany was very liberal when it comes to adult material?
Didn't they have p0rn shops in every corner on Reeperbahn boulevard back in the 80's?

Disc you bought must be equivalent to soft core tv-show Electric Blue aired on tv decades ago.

Stupeed customs won't allow you to put a home made FSK16 sticker on LD jacket?

It WAS liberal, years ago...... It was.
They passed stricter laws in Germany in 2008, but I had no trouble in all these years.
Yes, they inspect the boxes. No, they dont allowed me to put a FSK16 sticker on this, the dealer in the USA has to do this.
And they check, if the LD material resembles FSK16 DVDs or videos in a database.
It makes no sense at all, I am over 18+, the artists are 18+, the material isnt even "adults only", but I cant get it.
But my 16year old cousin could buy it, if the techno store on the corner would sell it ( on DVD ).

Sounds like a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. Unfortunately not much to do with it. Up until recently here in Norway, if you imported a veteran car (30+ years) and it were missing indicator lights on the sides, you had to drill holes and mount some... A lot of old cars that got ruined because it had to be rebuilt and hacked. Especially american cars since the sealed beam headlights in general were illegal, besides missing indicator lights (and wrong colors on the lights).

If it is as simple as adding a sticker, I would contact the seller and e-mail him a logo to slap on the cover. However, it does sound really silly if the laws have become stricter AND apply to material older than the passed law. What do you guys do about the huge amounts of old movies already sold throughout the last 30 years? I've come across old german adult tapes with full on genitalia and penetration on the front artwork of the cover.... I'm so glad that the censorship authorities here in Norway lost their power in 2006. Nothing gets banned anymore unless it is in violation with the childpornography laws (like A Serbian Film) or extremely violent BDSM stuff. Even the illegal stuff slip past the ban hammer a while before it actually is banned. How the laws are written here is silly anyway. By definition, even Game of Thrones is illegal.

I am interested to hear there are people collecting old softcore erotic titles on LD. That is a very interesting part of the LD world.

What happened to you is so very typically German. It is ridiculous. I am very sorry to hear that.

@Samaron: If I understand the norway law, every form of pornography is illegal, or ?
But as early as in the 70s special shops sold it.

@confederate: Im not so much a softcore laserdisc collector, by the way this would be a very narrow collector field,
but a DISCOVISION and a CED Selectavision Collector.
I hadnt bought the "Touch of Love" otherwise, but its a DISCOVISION title.
I only collect the early PLAYBOY/PENTHOUSE titles, because some started on CED, but all series were discontinued.
Its not possible to complete the PLAYBOY MAGAZINE Series on CED.
Other titles were announced, but stopped in the last minute. (e.g. GIRLS OF PENTHOUSE )

The FSK16 makes no really sense on movies that were never reviewed by the FSK.
And they could pass other titles that have a FSK16 rating, like "Girls of Penthouse", its still on sale here on DVD in Germany,
but they dont forward it without the sticker.

$ 40 money for nothing instead a "Touch of Love"

Not anymore. You can buy movies at sex shops and magazines at many kiosks. As I mentioned, only very violent pornography is still illegal. Before the government decided to enforce heavy censorship on home video in 1985 or so, you could rent hardcore stuff. You could still rent pornography afterwards, but it were heavily cut. Many had to be double features too since they were so severly scissored. I actually have a folder from the late 80s I found at an old video store. It contains sample covers for various erotic movies and every single one have a hand-signed document from the authorities stating the feature is legal.

I bet someone at Customs noticed the "FOR ADULTS ONLY" text on the front cover and panicked. If it wasn't for that text it probably would have cleared just fine.

It was never legal to import p*rn, or certain horror into germany.
Thing is, you were lucky all these years.
If you import questionable stuff, you need to take precautions.
But even then, there is still a risk you might be found out.
Ideally buy questionable titles from european based sellers.
Saves you a lot of headache and trouble.
And I agree with nems, the "For adults only" text on the cover...
That's probably what caused this mess after all.

I have seen in a documentary, that they actually watch DVD's with
questionable content on the spot, until they see any genit*li* - at
that point they can stop and confiscate.

I wonder which german customs office did this? I know that it´s sometimes a problem importing stuff from overseas, but did you ask them if this title is banned here?

I know, so I never imported 18+ titles from a non-european supplier.
I never thought that "Touch of Love" would be a critical title, but the "Adults only" could be the reason that they
stopped it. I never noticed it on the cover. Is it possible, that there are two versions ( with and without "Adults only" title ) ?
I fear a FSK16 wouldnt help here, because 16/17 year olds arent adults. It will only stir more confusion.

This is one of the rare occasions, where the generic"Discovision" graphic isnt helping at all, because it looks, as if the curtain
hides an explicit scene, that isnt explicit at all.

Just curious, what do think would have happened if you had the disc and the jacket shipped separately?

allenwrench that is something that I have done in the past with some horror titles.
And so far, it has always worked for me.

Man, Australia has a history of censorship too but luckily customs is slack as s**t here and almost nothing gets opened let alone confiscated. Did have an airsoft AEG confiscated and melted down though (Australia is the only country in the world that bans Airsoft - so gay)...never had customs duties charged since the '90s though..

I have this title in my collection. It is totally harmless.

@ nems: Yes, the "for adults only" label caused the trouble
@ allenwrench: If I had shipped cover and LD seperately and they arrived seperately too, they only had stopped the cover and
asked me what I want with a cover without content. But I think they had confiscated the cover.....

Now that I think about it... isn't the FSK rating a voluntary thing? If a title is not submitted for rating, it automatically get an "18" rating? If so, wouldn't it in general be enough that you, as the recipient, are 18 or older?

Yes and no. They could seizure every title without a FSK Logo. They did this around the millennium, even stopping titles like "Sesame Street" or "G.I.JOE cartoons". But they dont had the manpower and videostores etc. protested. So they only stopped titles that are 18er titles or they assume these are 18er titles. The Playboy and Penthouse titles went through only months ago ( as DVDs ), because the exact titles are sold in german everywhere.

The FSK 16 logo was missing on the LD, but maybe the combination of "for adults only" and FSK16 will cause new trouble. I dont know, but I will take
the risk next year.

it's strange german authorities don't ban Babette Blue movies
that lady is very extreme and likes to fist every gap

If you tried to Import Babette Blue from outside the EU in a parcel,
and they'd find it - they'd very likely confiscate it.