Legality question on file sharing
 

Hi guys, I have a question if you can help me. I want to share some media files but I am wondering what is an illegal behavior when sharing files and what gets you in trouble. I heard it is OK to share unlicensed music and videos in the county you are in, but is this true? For example, if you want to share some music or video that is licensed in Japan, but not licensed in the US, is it OK to share it in the US until it gets licensed in the US? What about sharing unlicensed TV episodes? Is there an easy way to find out what is safe to share and what is not? Does anybody know? Thanks much.

It's still illegal, the only difference is that the copyright holders are less likely to haul your ass to court when you're sharing it outside their geographical domain.

Declaring international amnesty for what is still, essentially, piracy is tenuous at best. In most cases, it won't help your cause.

When you share files, there are more parties involved than just yourself. The company that owns the servers on which the files have been uploaded are liable. So are the owners of the websites to which you provide links, and the companies that own their host servers. Even your ISP can be blamed (it's happened). These may be scattered over numerous continents or they may all be domestic. It doesn't matter usually, as they're in some way responsible for enabling and permitting illegal activity.

Just because a property isn't licensed in another country doesn't mean that there are no licenses anywhere at all. Somebody owns it and you're cutting into profit. You're going to piss someone, somewhere off. Most of us don't truly give a shit who's upset, but it's gotten to the point where you can't hide behind geographic borders if accused.

Thanks for the info guys. I actually don't really care who gets pissed but I just want to protect myself. I have no idea how much trouble you can get into, but I don't want to be deported for something silly as file sharing. Am I thinking too much? :><: