On 05-Jan-09 18:23, Darren New wrote:
> andrel wrote:
>> On 05-Jan-09 1:09, Darren New wrote:
>>> andrel wrote:
>>>> That also illustrates the IP difficulties. 
>>>
>>> For that matter, you asked how to listen without buying the CD. How 
>>> do you know the CD is authorized? :-) I have a few movies I bought on 
>>> DVD in China. Probably bootleg, of course, but *I* wasn't the one 
>>> copying them. Is that "bad"?
>>>
>> hmm, yes. You were aware that they were (probably) illegal, so you are 
>> guilty of something that I don't know the English word for.
> 
> What makes you sure they were illegal in China? And what makes you think 
> that *I* did anything illegal by buying them, even if they were?  As 
> Warp points out, different countries have different standards. If I buy 
> something off a shelf in a public store, I don't expect that buying it 
> is illegal where I buy it. When I go in a restaurant, I don't imagine 
> they're serving me food that I'll get arrested for eating. How am I to 
> guess that the USA movies with Chinese subtitles are or aren't 
> authorized for sale in China?

You could be right, but my guess is that even if pirated DVD's are not 
illegal in China (which I doubt) you still cannot import them into the 
US. In many countries things made from coral or shells or leather are 
sold that you can not import into e.g. the Netherlands because they are 
made from protected animals. As a tourist you have to know that. If you 
are caught with such items in your luggage you will be prosecuted. "I 
didn't know that and there were hundreds of these shells on the beach 
anyway" simply does not work, as many tourists have found out. I assume 
importing pirated movies may be handled the same. IANAL though.

> Copyright law (in the USA at least) prevents you from copying things 
> without permission. 

I think the main discussion is: can you legally own pirated copies? IIRC 
the rule here is that you can always have at most one copy of an IP 
protected work that you do own as a backup. I assume the Rijksmuseum has 
a copy of the Nightwatch somewhere in case it gets lost in a fire.

> Most everything else is pretty much fair game, as 
> evidenced by the lengths that people selling software go through to try 
> to get you to agree to more restrictions on your use of the software.

Often followed by a note that these restriction do not apply in 
countries where such restrictions are illegal. ;)

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