a word on copyrights from LJChapa_at_aol.com on 1997-03-06 (Glorantha Digest Vol 04)

From: LJChapa_at_aol.com
Date: Wed, 5 Mar 1997 23:03:15 -0500 (EST)

In regards to Intellectual Property rights, (and for that matter all laws) laws are only binding in the jurisdiction in which they have been passed. For example U.S. patent laws only prevent someone from making, using or selling items that contain or make use of a patented invention ** in the United States **.

I think I've heard something about cruise ships which allow gambling as soon as they enter international waters. I also remember hearing of internet sites located on host computers outside of the United States that offered forms of presumably legalized gambling.

I suspect that there are probably jurisdictions that do not have the equivalence of a copyright law, where it would be legal to post material (i.e. make a copy available for public inspection). Off the top of my head, I do not know of any such jurisdiction, but I would bet a couple probably exist.

However, while it may be legal to post copyrighted material on a web-site in this jurisdiction, it may still be technically illegal to view this material from within a country that would honor the author's copyright. This is because, for example in the US, there have been several court cases which have held that downloading and storing a copy of something in a computer memory is equivalent to making a copy, which would be separatly evaluated under copyright law, and given that you are in a jurisdiction which honors the author's copyright, you are guilty of violating the copyright laws, and subject to the penalties provided for under the law.

However copyrights do not last forever. In the US, I believe copyrights last for the author's life plus 50 years. Similarly there are some fair use exceptions, which may allow a person to legally use fragments of a copyrighted piece. Students legally quote passages from copyrighted material all of the time, they are expected to provide an appropriate footnote indicating the source of the material. What do they say about the difference between plagerism and research? I think it would be very difficult to legally copy large sections of text this way.

I have always been amazed with the amount of copying that is allowed, under the guise of parady, which may be way to convey a significant amount of the original content. Sometimes paradies can even be better than the original work.

**The standard disclaimer**
While I am an Intellectual Property Attorney (who specializes in the area of patents, not copyrights), I would recommend you consult an attorney before you start making available any unauthorized copies of a work which may be copyrighted, as the facts in each case are likely to be different, and could affect how the laws of the governing jurisdiction are applied.