I'm moving to Italy soon and need some information on the laws and prices in Italy. The company will be moving the household items so if I include a box or two of extra blank cd/dvds it shouldn't be a problem.
I've heard blank CD/DVDs are very expensive in the EU is this across the whole EU and can I legally bring them in.
Can I bring copies of CDs I already own or should I trash them all and risk loosing them in shipping. (or put iso files on a hard drive?)

The links in the sticky threads were not working, some kind of mysql error.

I want to be conservative and not get thrown out but I also want to be able to make copies of my discs and use my mp3/mp4 player.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Drum

For what I know there is no restriction in bringing with yourself the discs you own. All legally purchased stuff is your property and you can bring it with you.

Prices in Italy are among the higher compared to the other European countries, because Italian politicians are a mass of dumba$$es and think only to stole money instead to take care of citizens (but this is rather common among politicians )

Thank you, the politicians there sound the same as the US. take from everyone to make themselves rich.

They are, but the levies are not the only reason. In fact if you want to purchase any high tech items (or even fashion), you will be better off by buying them right now.

FYI, you can order from online shops in Luxembourg that do not have to pay copyright levies.
Do not forget to declare them in your country afterwards, because we are honest tax-payers

If the discs will be stored in a sealed container where you must be there when the container is sealed and to break the seal when the container has arrived in Italy, I can't see any issue with bringing in your copies. However, if they are shipped in containers or boxes where they can be accessed or seen during any part of the journey, I would suggest taking extra care in how you pack them. For example, if you pack your originals along with the matching copies, anyone who sees these would be less suspicious than if they saw a spindle or box of copied discs on their own, not realising that the originals are packed in a separate box.

If you plan shipping anything by post, I would strongly recommend not sending any copies through the mail, as I have already heard of a few cases where packages containing copied discs were seized by customs here in Ireland, usually as a result of someone placing an eBay order for a movie / TV show series and the item being sold turning out to be pirated content.

If I am reading correctly you receive a one time exemption from taxes when you are moving into the country. I'll check to be sure and if so take a few spindles or a case with me.

Do you know a source of cords, adapters and transformers? Alot of our electronics will take 220V but have the wrong cord. I do have a great DVD/digital media player from philips that is 110 only that I really don't want to give up.

[quote=Seán;2016997]If the discs will be stored in a sealed container where you must be there when the container is sealed and to break the seal when the container has arrived in Italy, I can't see any issue with bringing in your copies. However, if they are shipped in containers or boxes where they can be accessed or seen during any part of the journey, I would suggest taking extra care in how you pack them. QUOTE]

I don't know how it will work, it is all being handled by the Italian company but I'm sure Customs has the right to inspect it. It's probably best to trash them and not take the risk, it's just not worth it.

I recently bought a spindle of 25 blank CDs for 10 euros - about 15 US dollars.

Selling bootleg CD on the streets used to be part of life here, and officials were on the lookout for movements of large quantities of CDs (Unless they had an "arrangement" to not be on the lookout....)

But that doesn't happen any more - maybe cheap Russian downloads (which are very popular here) killed the trade. Anyway, I can't imagine any official being remotely interested in your CD collection or downloading activities unless you're doing something extremely unusual.

Shop-bought CDs are insanely expensive - around 20 euros/30 USD for a high profile recent release.

Pretty much every good electrical store has 110v transformers. First, check the wattage of the appliances you plan connecting to ensure you get a powerful but not too large/bulky one.

To give an idea of a few transformers typically available at least here in Ireland:

• 40 watt - about the size of a power adapter for a PC desktop speaker system or scanner. This will suit most set-top boxes, assuming you just plug in one at a time. Just make sure the wattage does not exceed 40 watts.
• 100 watt - around the size of a 6-volt lantern battery. This will handle a couple of set-top boxes, so long as the sum of their wattages do not exceed 100 watts.
• 800+ watt inverter - around the size of a 6-volt lantern battery. These will typically handle appliances with heating elements, such as coffee percolators, irons, toasters and so on. However, as most of these inverters do not have good voltage regulation, these may not be suitable for any electronic items, so make sure you read the item's description closely before you pick-up a high wattage convertor.

For those appliances compatible with 220-240 volts, just get a few travel adapters. These are available at pretty much any airport and many electrical stores also. Shaver adapters will generally cater for the 2-pin appliances.

Finally, if you bring any surge protection leads over, do not use these without a transformer, even if the appliances you plug in are 220v-240v compatible, as the high voltage will burn out the surge protection circuitry that is designed for 110v. However, there should be no issue using a surge protection lead plugged into a tranformer such as for hooking up a handful of 110v appliances to a transformer.

We believe you " Don Geno"