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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Sigil" data-source="post: 1473120" data-attributes="member: 2013">I'm not sure that's correct, unfortunately.  It's why different areas of the world have different copyright terms.IANAL, but my understanding is that the location in which an act is committed determines whether or not the act is a crime and which laws are applicable.  For example, let us suppose that the City of Blah has an ordinance which makes it illegal to spit upon the sidewalk.  The City of Blah2 has no such ordinance.If I am standing in the middle of Blah2 and spit on the sidewalk, are the police from the City of Blah entitled to arrest me?  No.  The action I took was legal in the place where I took it.Of course, it gets a little stickier if, say, I stand on the border of Blah and Blah2 and spit while standing in Blah2 onto the sidewalk located in Blah.  Does my location determine the jurisdiction or does the point where my spit lands determine the jurisdiction?Similarly, the rights granted by US copyright law simply DO NOT APPLY outside of the United States.  It's the reason a work created in Britain cannot be copied inside the US - it's not BRITISH copyright law that protects it, but US copyright law.  For examples of the dichotomies this creates, <a href="http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/entertainment/books/4858151.htm" target="_blank"> here's a useful, if a bit dated, link</a>.  It's actually a pretty nice example... the example of James Barrie's Peter Pan... useful because it's an exceptional case thanks to the British government granting it a special exemption and putting it under perpetual copyright (in Britain).From that article:It's worth noting the following link as well for US residents: <a href="http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm" target="_blank">http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm</a>The play "Peter Pan" was written in 1904.  It must have been published (not written) no later than 1937 (the year of Barrie's death).  I presume it was published in 1928 and took the steps to have its US copyright renewed in 1956... which would extend the term to 95 years or to 2023.RIGHT NOW:By Canadian law, this is in the public domain (per the article quoted).By British law, this is protected by copyright.By US law, this is in the under copyright until 2023 (assuming the copyright was renewed in 1956; if it was not, it is now in the public domain).IN 2024 (Assuming no change of laws lengthening copyright yet AGAIN):In Canada, it will be in the public domain.In Britain, it will be under copyright.In the US, it will be in the public domain.In other words, it's illegal to make a copy of the play "Peter Pan" in the US and in Britain or to create derivative works... but it IS legal to do so in Canada!  So if I write and publish "Peter Pan II" in the US, I'm in trouble.  But if I take a vacation up to Canada and do all my writing and publishing there, I'm not.Again, copyright is not a "world-wide right" - it varies from country to country and your location determines the law for you.Of course, where an "act" takes place is a little bit tougher to determine in the internet world... if a person in, say, Japan clicks on a button to download copyrighted material residing on a British server, is the act considered an act "in Britain" or an act "in Japan?"  This is the same problem, essentially, as the "spitting across a city border" argument.Getting too complex and nasty and legal and political to continue, but there you go.  Basically, what might be illegal in one area may not be illegal in another.  Examples applicable to copyright include the provision that making a copy of something for personal use is NOT considered violating copyright in Canada or that in Norway you are granted the explicit right which CANNOT be waived by contract to reverse-engineer software so any contract or EULA that say "you agree not to do this" cannot see that provision enforced (see: DeCSS and "DVD Jon").In other words, exactly what you can and cannot do with copyrighted material, patented material, trade secrets, and trademarks VARIES with jurisdiction - and what in fact constitutes copyrighted material et al varies with jurisdiction (e.g., Peter Pan is NOT considered "copyrighted material" in Canada).  If you want to know what the laws are that are applicable to you, consult a local lawyer.It is interesting, BTW, to note, that "copyrighted material" does not "belong" to the discoverer of the material in the usual sense (at least in the US version of copyright).  Rather, it is material that belongs to EVERYONE, but the government temporarily loans a monopoly of rights of usage to the discoverer of the material for a fixed period of time (I use the word "discoverer" because "creator" is not really the right word - you don't "create" a book or song when you write it; rather, you discover the right combination of words and/or notes from the finite number of possible combinations that are out there - you didn't create the words or notes, you simply organized pre-existing ones).  We don't CREATE houses, we build them.  We don't CREATE cars, we build them.  We don't CREATE books and music and movies... we "build" them.--The Sigil</blockquote>

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