I wasn't referring to a copyright provision, I was referring to their other well-known restrictive laws. I'm not sure I buy the "ethical validity" argument, in part because I'm not so sure I, in my heart of hearts, think that copyright is about ethics much these days (and suspect that Iran's lack of participation in foreign copyright agreements is done so more for their own benefit -- not having to pay foreign copyright holders -- than it does in inducing any loss-of-profit for the Iranian government or Iranian citizens). But anyway -- my response was just meant to say, "Well, I don't think we're legally bound to follow Iranian laws on this or much anything else." Even if that's *true* (I'm the first to admit I'm not very well versed in international law), it doesn't *necessarily* imply any particular course of action. The censorship example was just to illustrate that if we tried to follow every country's individual content laws about everything, we'd have no encyclopedia.

I wasn't referring to a copyright provision, I was referring to their other well-known restrictive laws. I'm not sure I buy the "ethical validity" argument, in part because I'm not so sure I, in my heart of hearts, think that copyright is about ethics much these days (and suspect that Iran's lack of participation in foreign copyright agreements is done so more for their own benefit -- not having to pay foreign copyright holders -- than it does in inducing any loss-of-profit for the Iranian government or Iranian citizens). But anyway -- my response was just meant to say, "Well, I don't think we're legally bound to follow Iranian laws on this or much anything else." Even if that's *true* (I'm the first to admit I'm not very well versed in international law), it doesn't *necessarily* imply any particular course of action. The censorship example was just to illustrate that if we tried to follow every country's individual content laws about everything, we'd have no encyclopedia. FF On 8/7/05, Ray Saintonge <saintonge(a)telus.net> wrote: >There is some ethical validity to respecting Iranian copyright law >whether or not an obligation exists. Iran's failure to participate in >international treaties on the matter should not be a primary concern. >Infringement of Iranian copyrights are still infringements even if US >courts would not consider those laws. Copyright terms in Iran (life + >30) are still shorter than in most countries, so there would be no need >to extend them beyond that time. I'm not aware of any Iranian copyright >provision regarding the depiction of women, and you admit that you don't >know about that either. That aspect seems like a red herring. >