Country with little copyright law enforcement?

[FFLC]

Imagine Studio A's photos are your best-selling products.

One day Studio A shut down and your best-selling products are no longer legally authorized nor sold.

The owner doesn’t care you are still authorized or not. No one will sue you.

But your company is in a place where copyright law is strictly enforced.

That I mean either one of your competitors can simply report it to authorities and destroy you.


Now here is the question: where will you form a new company so you can keep selling Studio A's products without concern?

Which country has copyright law but rarely enforced?

 

[NicolasMaduro]

what is there to enforce if no one have the copyrights?

 

[FFLC]

what is there to enforce if no one have the copyrights?

Believe me, in my country a lot of piracy got reported by “good” citizens. (And those who simply don’t like your business)

The authorities are so responsible and always investigate every report.

Lots of merchants restaurant, karaokes got reported by competitors. Unauthorised commercial use? They got fined. The authorities executed like they are the copyright owners. Unbelievable.

 

[Sols]

China and Iran are notoriously non-compliant with international standards about intellectual property.

Additionally, look at countries which are not signatories to the Berne Convention or the TRIPS Agreement. You're left with Eritrea, Kosovo, Marshall Islands, Palau, and Palestine. The only jurisdiction even moderately interesting is Marshall Islands, and it's a pretty problematic jurisdiction. It might work in your case, though. Depends on how you structure it.

The Marshall Islands is not a member of the World Trade Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), or any other international agreement on intellectual property rights. There is inadequate protection for intellectual property, patents, copyrights, and trademarks. The only intellectual property-related legislation relates to locally produced music recordings, and it has never been enforced. The Marshall Islands are not listed on the USTR’s Special 301 Report, nor are they listed in the notorious market report. Pirated DVDs and CDs imported from off-island are readily available.

https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-investment-climate-statements/marshall-islands/

 

[tacokai]

China and Iran are notoriously non-compliant with international standards about intellectual property.

I can imagine they give a s**t about copyrights

 

[FFLC]

China and Iran are notoriously non-compliant with international standards about intellectual property.

Additionally, look at countries which are not signatories to the Berne Convention or the TRIPS Agreement. You're left with Eritrea, Kosovo, Marshall Islands, Palau, and Palestine. The only jurisdiction even moderately interesting is Marshall Islands, and it's a pretty problematic jurisdiction. It might work in your case, though. Depends on how you structure it.



https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-investment-climate-statements/marshall-islands/

Thats good info.

But I imagine the director / owner however still need to manage the company from a country where copy right law little enforced, right?

 

[FFLC]

I can imagine they give a s**t about copyrights

Well true in most cases. But not the 100% picture. They did care LESS for foreign copyrights.
But for local copyrights, some medium to large sized companies will sue each other. As I can tell from my industry.

 

[Sols]

But I imagine the director / owner however still need to manage the company from a country where copy right law little enforced, right?

Yes, and therein lies your biggest problem. The places that have weak copyright laws and, by and large, places you probably don't want to live, convince someone to move to, and/or struggle to find a relevant talent pool in.

 

[FFLC]

Yes, and therein lies your biggest problem. The places that have weak copyright laws and, by and large, places you probably don't want to live, convince someone to move to, and/or struggle to find a relevant talent pool in.

Could there be situation that:

The Marshall Island Company claims all the operations, the website ownership. The Director is local. Nothing related to you. No Name.
But it is a puppet / shell company managed by you. The PSP and EMI are controlled by you. No actual operations done within the Marshall Island.
Your company invoice it for consulting expenses, etc.

So the worst case happens - A competitor reports the company in your country say the website has unauthorized use.
Then the authorities in your country try to figure out who owns the site. They found out it's a Marshall Island Company. Since no copyright laws enforcement on foreign work there, authorities can't force the puppet company to show anything regarding copyright, right?

And most importantly the original owners didn't even care.
Would they give up the report?

Or is this just a fantacy.

 

[JustAnotherNomad]

I guess the question is whether your competitor knows/can show that you are behind the company? Otherwise why would they even care?

 

[FFLC]

I guess the question is whether your competitor knows/can show that you are behind the company? Otherwise why would they even care?

i can say the competitors will not know the name of owner or the company. The only one who know is the one with court order

in my country, unauthorised use can be reported. If authorities start investigating the website and find out some content are unable to prove authorised, they can put you in jail and heavy fine per copy.

It doesn’t have to be content owner to report. Any normal citizens or customer can report. And yes this become competitors weapon.

so it comes to problem: Given we don’t need to concern original owner. They will not sue us. Now where to incorporate so such unauthorised use report can be no threat and surely ignored?

 

[JustAnotherNomad]

What I meant was, they would need to know or at least have a suspicion that you’re a competitor from their own country? Otherwise why would they report some competitor from a country that is far away? They must know that it would lead nowhere. Or am I missing something?
And if they already suspect that someone from their own country is behind the offshore company, then the taxman might also become interested.

 

[FFLC]

What I meant was, they would need to know or at least have a suspicion that you’re a competitor from their own country? Otherwise why would they report some competitor from a country that is far away? They must know that it would lead nowhere. Or am I missing something?
And if they already suspect that someone from their own country is behind the offshore company, then the taxman might also become interested.

To Combine of website, content you offer, marketing campaign style and wording, the competitor can guess you are either from his country and adjustment ones.

There is jealous one discovers you using unauthorised content and earn a lot, and he happens to know there is a report system so he can make use of. He simply file a report based on what he knows.

And let the authorities work, zero cost for him.

 

[JustAnotherNomad]

Yes, I understood what you meant.
All I meant was that if they already suspect you are a local competitor, then they can not only report you for copyright infringement, but also for tax evasion since the company is registered in the Marshal Islands and not paying the local taxes. So the tax authorities might also launch their own investigation and they might not give up so easily. Just something to be aware of.

 

[FFLC]

Yes, I understood what you meant.
All I meant was that if they already suspect you are a local competitor, then they can not only report you for copyright infringement, but also for tax evasion since the company is registered in the Marshal Islands and not paying the local taxes. So the tax authorities might also launch their own investigation and they might not give up so easily. Just something to be aware of.

True, good point! I'm not a tax expert.

But what can the tax authorities do
When they see a foreign company simply selling Internationally via their own website?

 

[JustAnotherNomad]

But what can the tax authorities do
When they see a foreign company simply selling Internationally via their own website?

They can send a request to the other country’s authorities to disclose who the UBO is. Most countries will be happy to comply with such a request since they don’t want to be blacklisted.
That is, if that’s even necessary: The company’s bank might already have informed them anyway under CRS.

 

[FFLC]

They can send a request to the other country’s authorities to disclose who the UBO is. Most countries will be happy to comply with such a request since they don’t want to be blacklisted.
That is, if that’s even necessary: The company’s bank might already have informed them anyway under CRS.

Yep I see.

Let say the money transfer from 3 party PSP to company's EMI as lum sum, and then to owner account,
can tax authorities tell the company is conducting sales in their home country so the company should be tax?

I think if you declared profit or foreign income in your living country, the tax problem should be fine.

Though the tax authorities can disclose the UBO,
it has nothing to do with further investigation on a foreign company's unauthorized use. True?

 

[NicolasMaduro]

Yep I see.

Let say the money transfer from 3 party PSP to company's EMI as lum sum, and then to owner account,
can tax authorities tell the company is conducting sales in their home country so the company should be tax?

I think if you declared profit or foreign income in your living country, the tax problem should be fine.

Though the tax authorities can disclose the UBO,
it has nothing to do with further investigation on a foreign company's unauthorized use. True?

The problem is that this marshall island company is a tax resident in whatever country you are resident in, and suddenly you are doing a lot of bad stuff, that can end you up with an expensive tax bill, or worse.

 

[FFLC]

The problem is that this marshall island company is a tax resident in whatever country you are resident in, and suddenly you are doing a lot of bad stuff, that can end you up with an expensive tax bill, or worse.

So the Marshall island company has to be owned by UBO reside in Marshall Island to avoid copyright investigation?

Can the true owner stays in resident city, then manipulate the company owned by local people? Or what do you suggest?

 

[JustAnotherNomad]

You should probably talk to an accountant to find out if you can legally use the Marshal Island company without committing tax evasion. I’m sure it’s possible, but you might have to register the company with your local government and disclose your name - meaning you wouldn’t be anonymous anymore.
There may also be other laws that would require you to disclose your name on the website - but maybe you could use a nominee. So it’s more complex than just incorporating the company.
Once they have your name, I guess they would still be able to report you personally, and not just the company.
Your best bet might be to use some kind of nominee setup.