eBay's warning me about shipping items overseas now.

[Kitsune Sniper]

I'm putting up some stuff right now, and as I was about to finish my listing, I was greeted with this notice:


Attention Sellers:

Because some countries strictly regulate the sale and distribution of certain video games, worldwide shipping is not available with this particular product.

We encourage you to take the time to familiarize yourself with the specific rules and regulations associated with those countries you are interested in shipping to and that you only offer this product to those countries in your future listings.

I tried to list the item, and it didn't let me finish! I just removed Germany from my "Ship to" list and it gave me no more problems. Figures. Stupid Germany. (I have no qualms against the country, I just think it's laws are stupid and retarded. And I mean no offense to people that are stupid and retarded.)

... is this a new thing? I'd never seen this warning before. Maybe it's because of the game's title (Manhunter). Still... does anyone else have this problem?

[kevin_psx]

Germany does not support free speech. They censor all kinds of crap 'cause they think citizens are children & need to be blocked from certain violent content. It's like having the Pat Robertson in charge.

Sad.

Even conservative Utah is not that bad. LOL ;-) As the EU takes control the Central Court will likely override Germany's anti-speech laws as unconstitutional (same as the U.S.).

[jajaja]

This game was also banned in Australia so you shouldnt be allowed to send it there either. Guess they havnt updated that.
A guy I know from Austria got his account suspended on Ebay because he was selling Killer Instinct. I dont know if its true tho, but atleast he said it (he got his account opened later). There are 3 ppl that sell Killer Instinct for SNES on ebay.de now.

[Roi]

Germany does not support free speech. They censor all kinds of crap 'cause they think citizens are children & need to be blocked from certain violent content. It's like having the Pat Robertson in charge.

Sad.

Even conservative Utah is not that bad. LOL ;-) As the EU takes control the Central Court will likely override Germany's anti-speech laws as unconstitutional (same as the U.S.).

Lol you really have no idea what your talking about, Germany does not support free speech LOL !

The U.S. censors way more and more than any country in Europe, with your dread of anything that is linked to sex and propaganda broadcastings like Fox.

[KeeperBvK]

Manhunt is strictly forbidden in Germany. Usually a game only gets banned (like it said in those old Quake ads in gaming mags), but this, Mortal Kombat 1+2 and the US versions of Wolfenstein games are absolutely forbidden to import, advertise, buy or sell. Your're only allowed to have them. :roll:
Games like Quake and such can at least still be sold to people at or over 18, but they mustn't be advertised in any way.
Sorry, if you feel like having been hi-jacked now, but maybe this could shed a bit more light onto your problem. ^^

[Kitsune Sniper]

This is not Manhunt, the game from Rockstar. This is Manhunter. I'm selling a classic MS-DOS Sierra game.

I got a question from a German bidder who wants the game. I told him that I couldn't ship it to him unless he found proof of the item not being banned in Germany. :(

I'll be posting a message on their boards later today, see if I can ship it to him or not.

[Zing]

The strange thing about this is Ebay obviously knows which country it was referring to in the message, since it doesn't complain if you deselect Germany. Why didn't it just straight up tell you "this item cannot ship to Germany"?

Germany has (or at least had) laws against games that depict killing humans. I know of several FPS games that had the humans in the game replaced by robots and that allowed the game to be freely distributed there.

[Kitsune Sniper]

The bidder contacted me and told me this:


Hi, okay, that is only an issue if you sell it to an underage person. Let
me give you some background: Germany has no censorship, the constitution
prohibits it outright. However there is a system set up to restrict the
sale of certain types of content (depictions degrading humans, glorifing
violence and hatred and hard pornography) to underage youth. It is called
Jugendschutz (Youth protection). Jugendschutz acts only on request from
citizens and any kind of citizens organisation. If that happens the Office
for youth protection evalutes the content and gives an opinion wether sale
and advertisments have to be restricted to people of age or not. If it is
restricted a seller has to ascertain that the buyer is of age. That is all
there is to it. There is a layer before that,called FSK (Freiwillige
Selbstkontrolle) which essentially works like the US motion picture rating
system. So if i happen to be lucky I will send you a copy of my passport
and all is well. Is that okay for you? cu Alex

(Forgive the spelling errors, the guy's German and his first language ain't English; though it's better than most... LOL )

The plot thickens... I already asked about this at eBay's message boards. Maybe they can shed some light on the situation.

[Mayhem]

The simple explanation is that Germany's laws now prohibit the sale to underage people of any game that hasn't been rated. So you have to prove you are at least 18 before you can buy anything without an ELSPA/PEGI rating on it.

Which pretty much encompasses any game made before about 1991, and I bet includes the game you are trying to sell.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Yes, yes it does. The game is really old.

So what do I do? I mean, he'll scan his passport for me, but what will happen when I ship the item? Are there any Germans here who can help?

[Mayhem]

Can't see there being a problem, if you send the item, German Customs might examine it and the recipient might have to then prove he's old enough to receive it.

The only other thing is to check that the game is not one that would be banned from being sold in the country (no idea how to do so) as Germans have been prosecuted for being in possession or trying to acquire games that are censored.

(I did once sell a copy of the new Castle Wolfenstein game on PC to someone in Germany because naturally they couldn't get it there!)

[Kitsune Sniper]

He checked, and there game's not listed, so he'll go ahead and bid once I give him a shipping estimate.

Thanks!

[KeeperBvK]

As I said, only exporting Mortal Kombat 1+2, Manhunt or the US versions of Wolfenstein games to Germany would be illegal. Anything else is perfectly legal. Offering games rated 18+ on ebay.de is not allowed but many Germans who want to sell such games simply put them into ebay.co.uk where trading 18+ games from Germany to Germany is legal. :drinking:
German Customs will neither do anything about it. :)

[evil_genius]

Damn Nazi's

[drummy]

The bidder contacted me and told me this:


Hi, okay, that is only an issue if you sell it to an underage person. Let
me give you some background: Germany has no censorship, the constitution
prohibits it outright. However there is a system set up to restrict the
sale of certain types of content (depictions degrading humans, glorifing
violence and hatred and hard pornography) to underage youth. It is called
Jugendschutz (Youth protection). Jugendschutz acts only on request from
citizens and any kind of citizens organisation. If that happens the Office
for youth protection evalutes the content and gives an opinion wether sale
and advertisments have to be restricted to people of age or not. If it is
restricted a seller has to ascertain that the buyer is of age. That is all
there is to it. There is a layer before that,called FSK (Freiwillige
Selbstkontrolle) which essentially works like the US motion picture rating
system. So if i happen to be lucky I will send you a copy of my passport
and all is well. Is that okay for you? cu Alex

(Forgive the spelling errors, the guy's German and his first language ain't English; though it's better than most... LOL )

The plot thickens... I already asked about this at eBay's message boards. Maybe they can shed some light on the situation.
If English is not his first language, he learned from a damn good teacher, because he has better English than I do! LOL