Uedas Wifey wrote:
how does copyright infringement or patents work on international ground? didn't think that applied globally. *sigh* youtube was a great source...
Hate to burst your bubble, but copyrights are protected internationally, because if the country is part of the UN, they also have signed a contract where they recognize copyrights created in other countries. Hence, when you draw a picture or record a song, it's protected worldwide. So, when you post an image, or a song text, or an excerpt from a book, or a part (or full) TV-show, and you don't have the explicit permission of the copyrightholder to do so, they can sue you to kingdom come. If you're stepping on the toes of the wrong type of company, you might have to pay for the rest of your life. That's no kidding. For example, here a fan got sued over selling a handmade item that had photostickers of a certain idol on it on ebay. The item sold for 2 Euros. The idol company's lawyers at once sued the person for 1200 Euros. That case made it to the big newspaper, but generally speaking, there are hords of lawyers out there who earn their money by suing ordinary fan people for copyright infringement. "Not knowing" doesn't protect you.
Don't be fooled to treat it like a game or something that the companies owe you as a fan. Also, that you promote the idol's popularity will not save you one little bit. Depending on the scale of your copyright infringement, you might get sued for not just a thousand Euros (or $), but hundredthousands, or even millions.
For more information check out: http://www.riaa.com/issues/copyright/laws.asp
Here's a quote from that page:
No Electronic Theft Law (NET Act) sets forth that sound recording infringements (including by digital means) can be criminally prosecuted even where no monetary profit or commercial gain is derived from the infringing activity. Punishment in such instances includes up to 3 years in prison and/or $250,000 fines. The NET Act also extends the criminal statute of limitations for copyright infringement from 3 to 5 years.
Additionally, the NET Act amended the definition of "commercial advantage or private financial gain" to include the receipt (or expectation of receipt) of anything of value, including receipt of other copyrighted works (as in MP3 trading). Punishment in such instances includes up to 5 years in prison and/or $250,000 fines.Individuals may also be civilly liable, regardless of whether the activity is for profit, for actual damages or lost profits, or for statutory damages up to $150,000 per work infringed.
It's a little bit different with trademarks (that's brand names, brand logos etc. like, Coca-Cola or a band name like KAT-TUN), but generally speaking, the company who has the rights in one country can in a lot of cases sue internationally for trademark infringement.