🚀 go-pugleaf

The U.S.A. itself only recently joined the Berne copyright
convention and previously maintained that all works published
internationally before the mid-fifties Universal Copyright
Convention were public domain in the U.S.A.

MOST countries do not treat computer programs as "literary works".

An Australian court case (Apple v Wombat) established that the
normal copyright laws of Australia (similar to most other English
speaking countries) did not cover computer programs. This was
promptly "fixed" by emergency legislation (which has not been
tested yet). Few other countries have adopted similar legislation
(though Singapore has).

Quite a few small third world countries are not parties to any
international copyright convention. Open piracy flourishes in
places like Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, the Gulf sheikhdoms etc,
with well organized commercial operations producing proper printed
manuals etc etc.

U.S. law does not apply in those countries any more than their law
applies in the U.S.A. (though the U.S. has been willing to resort
to strong trade sanctions to compel acquiescence - as occurred with
Singapore).

As for importing pirate editions to the U.S.A., my understanding is
that private importation for personal use is legal (not just tolerated
but legal), while commercial importation for resale etc is strictly
prohibited (and the prohibition seriously enforced).

Anyway, there is no need to speculate on Soviet legal developments -
LOTs of other countries available for anyone interested in doing it.

BTW, India is one of them and has achieved a great deal in Unix as
a result of standardizing on that system after kicking IBM out. Also
I think Brazil has its own version of unix and a strict ban on
importing software (as opposed to pirating it :-)