customs question re: laptop, ipod, & DVDs

[Minuvweyna]

I am an American who will be living in the UK on a student visa. I will be bringing my laptop and ipod with me, as well as some of my DVDs.

I have purchased a lot of digital music from places like iTunes and Amazon Unbox, but I have also made digital copies of CDs that I own so that I could use the music on my ipod. I wasn't planning to bring the CDs, since they take up room and weight allowance, and I don't really use the music in that format. All of that is legal in the US, as far as I know. But I am not sure what that means for customs coming into the UK. Do they look for that sort of thing? And how would they know if my music is legal or not? Should I just back it all up and leave it at home and go without my music while I'm abroad? I certainly don't want any trouble with the customs folks.

I also am hoping to bring some of my DVDs. They're region 1, naturally, but I can play them on my laptop. I have them in a big CD wallet thing. Would that be alright to take through customs, and are they likely to make me pay import costs? The collection is definitely worth a bit, but I've already paid for them and owned most of them for years. I definitely want to be prepared if there will be a charge to bring that sort of thing in.

None of this really occurred to me until I heard all the stuff about the latest G8 conference and ACTA. Now I'm a bit concerned.

Thank you in advance for any advice you can offer.

Elizabeth