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by rahimnathwani 4039 days ago
I'm not a lawyer either, but I'm pretty sure that copyright laws don't lose their effect just because something hasn't been released (yet) in your country.

If that were the case, then all pre-release bootleg copies would be legal.

2 comments

Bootleg copies are for advertisement only, that's why the put the warning signs everywhere on it. So, technically copying bootlegs wouldn't be legal.

Copyright is not an universal law and each country has its own definition of it. There are many countries where hollywood productions (movies or series) are not released, nor marketed at all. If not marketed, the product is not bound by the local copyright law. In that case why would the people of those countries be obliged to follow another foreign country's (US) law? Technically, people in those countries are not entitled to enjoy the hollywood productions at all?

There are copyright reciprocity agreements between specific sets of nations, but there is no universal copyright law.
Yes, that's why I referred to 'laws' (plural).

Have you come across any copyright law (in any country) where copyright does not apply just because the item has not been released in that country?

Well, there are 193 member nations in the UN, and 188 of them are members of the World Intellectual Property Organization, so I guess that means there are 5 countries that do not have any laws against violating intellectual property rights from other countries. Which ones? I don't know. I'm too lazy to compare the lists.