Recently, an acquaintance showed me a site where you can download essentially any popular song or album. The cost to do so (other than the moral one!) was extremely cheap.
The site is based in a former state of the USSR.
Of course, I am not providing a link, nor am I in way defending the existence of this, or similar, sites.
My question, though, is what recourse, if any, do the record companies and/or artists have in such a situation? Are they SOL? Is there any meaningful, enforceable, international law or ‘agreement’?
I’m still a bit confused since 1) the USSR itself used to openly flout the Convention, and 2) the site I mentioned in the OP seems to have been operating with impunity for around a year.
If you’re talking about [url=xxx then first of all, I’ve mentioned it and linked to it many times here on the SDMB, and the mods have never gotten upset. Next, if it’s legal for you to go to Russia to purchase them, then it’s probably legal to purchase them from Russia remotely. I say probably, because the US tries to do funny things sometimes, like prevent internet gambling. :rolleyes:
It seems to be legal in Russia, which is the real acid test. They were raided by the Russian police, charged with infringement, and had the charges completely dismissed. This was just a couple of months ago. So, whether by right or by might, they’re still operating with the full knowledge of their government.
So are you saying that what determines whether a signatory to the Berne Convention will tow the line for a particular service, product, idea, etc., is whether any of their own laws are being broken? That sounds bizarre - basically it would give countries the option of opting out of the Convention on their whim, whenever they please. In other words, it eviscerates (and then some) the heart of the agreement.
If I follow your logic, the it’s ok to download chlid porn in some Aisian country and bring it back to the USA and that your defense would be that it was legal to do so in that country. Confused :dubious:
Possessing music isn’t a legal or illegal act. The distribution rights are mediated by civil law. If you aquire a legal product (I don’t know where you’re from, but child porn isn’t legal) in a legal manner, then it’s yours legally. Counterfeit goods can be siezed, but (1) that’s really Cindy Lauper!, and (2) The courts have acknowledged that the license is valid.
Remember that you’re innocent in this country until proven otherwise. So the burden of fact here isn’t for me to prove that #the-place-I-mentioned# is legal; the burden is for naysayers to prove that it’s not.
::Sigh:: samclem, I wasn’t disputing that, and I even stayed careful not to repeat the URL. I respect the mods, including you, as well as the board rules and so on. But keep in mind that even the Supreme Court gives “legal opinions.” That’s all I meant!
Now that you mention the moderator forums, I’m truly interested in the other moderators’ legal opinions. And as I said, I’ll respect the result.
However it seems clear that “xxx”.com do not have distribution rights in the US. Thus ordering your music through them from the US may not be legal. You may think it should be, but the music inductry has a lot of clout, and laws are drafted in this case not for the primary benefit of consumers here, but to kep the industry happy and profitable.
