Is It Illegal To Order A Movie From Overseas?
from the unclear dept
Earlier this week, we had the story of Miramax sending out threatening letters to a movie review site that simply linked to a site that used to sell movies that had been released in Asia, but not in the US. So, now, Wired News is exploring the tricky legal question of whether or not you're allowed to buy foreign DVDs of movies not released in the US. The conclusion is that you can probably buy a single copy for personal use. Maybe. You can't, however, sell it anywhere. So, if you go into a store, and they offer films (or, I imagine, music) that were released for sale outside of this country, it could be illegal to buy them. Apparently, despite having this nice global economy we're all supposed to be a part of, intellectual property law still means you could be breaking the law if you are buying and selling products not from this country.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Won't play anyhow?
As a data point, I'll say that DVD's are still not popular in Japan yet -- video stores still have mostly VHS. Great stuff too, like "Mass Suicide" (Shuudan Jisatsu), a new movie, about the internet starting a fad of mass suicides, and the movie starts with 50 girls jumping off a train platform and turning Shinjuku station into a river of blood.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Won't play anyhow?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
Not that I have ever actually done it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]