Quote:
Originally posted by Mr.Fiction
... The section of American copyright law known as "The Berne Act" clearly states: films unreleased in the United States, including original version of films altered and/or edited for release in the United States, are not protected by American copyright; thus, they are considered public domain. The entire purpose of our company is to provide (otherwise unavailable) films to the serious video collector. We do not offer videos owned by American releasing companies. If a film should become available domestically we immediately stop offering it to our clients.
Any lawyers know if this "Berne Act" bit is true?
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The text of the treaty of the Berne Convention is available at
http://www.law.cornell.edu/treaties/berne/. It doesn't take long to read through, the articles are quite short and straightforward. I fail to see anything like it within. Anyone else?
Besides which, the concept of "not protected by a country's copyright" = "public domain within that country" is
exactly the reason the Berne Convention was formed in the first place!