Berne Act copyright question

Hello,

I am writing to you to see if you can give me some information. Here is my problem, I want to sell copies of rare (mainly British 1960's) films on on-line auctions, but I want to make sure I am doing this legally.

I was told -- 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.

I want to know if this is true/correct/legal???

Also, the films I want to sell have never been released on video any where in the world, but also I would like to know if its legal to transfer PAL format tapes to NTSC format and sell them in the US, if they have not been released on video in the US?

I hope you can help me with this, and clearly lay out the all the correct legality of the above. Thank you for your time,

Sincerely,
Sean Streit in the US
at streits[_at_]mindspring.com Received on Thu Jan 20 2000 - 03:52:18 GMT