8

I am a big fan of GTA (Grand Theft Auto) and I am a PC gamer waiting for GTA V PC version for months now.

I have seen that it will be available from Jan 27th on amazon.com so that we can pre-order it.

As I stay in India I asked my sister to buy that game for me (she lives in the USA). Now my question is:

Is it legal to carry the DVD with her when she comes to India?

Improve this question
10
  • 9
    Whilst not strictly a travel/customs answer, you may have to watch out for DRM style restrictions. If GTA has online activation/DRM checks, they may read your IP address, realise it is an non-USA one and prevent installation (whether because they have exclusivity agreements with distributors in that region, other legal issues or just pricing reasons). So whilst it may be possible for you to get the physical DVD, don't be 100% confident it will work.
    – Richy B.
    Jan 5, 2015 at 13:22
  • 2
    As hinted by RichyB above, the real issue is one of contract law, not criminal law. There should be no legal reason you can't import the game into India (unless the game itself is illegal in India--due to obscenity or something, as suggested in JohnZwink's answer). The more relevant question is, are you violating the license/contract between you and the GTA publishers by taking the game which you bought in the USA, to India. If your contract with them says that you will only play the game in the USA, you may be in violation of this law. This wouldn't be a criminal offence. (cont'd)
    – Flimzy
    Jan 5, 2015 at 20:29
  • 1
    ... the GTA publishers would have to sue you to prove that you violated the contract, then attempt to collect damages. IOW, completely unlikely to happen. However, they may have other efforts in place to attempt to enforce the letter of their contract such as IP verification, etc. There are often ways around such restrictions as well--but they, of course, are usually not legal (and then technically can become criminal offence, known as fraud--although still not likely to be prosecuted in the vast majority of cases).
    – Flimzy
    Jan 5, 2015 at 20:30
  • Or use store.steampowered.com and completely bypass any issues with trying to bring it through customs.
    – Ankur Banerjee
    Jan 6, 2015 at 0:35
  • @AnkurBanerjee: You almost certainly have to mask your location with Steam, as I did with a proxy server, when I lived in Mexico. Which, as mentioned above, probably constitutes fraud. (But I didn't care)
    – Flimzy
    Jan 6, 2015 at 0:37

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
11

The US will have no problem with it. Your concern should be with the Indian side. There are a couple of potential issues:

  1. The possible appearance that your sister is importing the game to resell it. She can mitigate this by opening the package and bringing you only the important parts, without the outer box. A game disc with no box shouldn't arouse suspicion of resale for profit, especially if it's only one game she's carrying (or two or three).
  2. The indecency aspect. As I understand it, GTA prominently features murder, prostitution, and reckless driving. There's some chance that a border agent may find this objectionable. I haven't seen anything that makes me think this will be a big problem, but it's something to consider, especially if your sister is travelling alone.
Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .