Actually, there's quite a bit that's wrong. :)
There are quite a few countries that have never agreed witht he entire copyright idea and consequently if you make something and put it on the net (and someone there wants it) it's theirs.
What you are referring to is the Berne convention. It is NOT the only copyright convention, and many countries which are not signatoree to the Berne convention were already signed up with the Universal Copyright Agreement. All of the former USSR nations for instance, despite not signing the Berne convention, uphold the convention in their laws. Simply because a country is not signed up with the Berne convention, doesn't mean that there is no copyright in those countries. Not only because they may already be party to other agreements as mentioned, but because many of these have their own copyright laws. Just because you're not in the US doesn't mean you're immune to copyright.
Yes, there ARE a few (but only very few) countries that have no agreed international or stated national copyright law - and people in those places can do whatever they want. AAnd no, there's nothing they can do about it. Of course, if they sell stuff to end-users in America, then you can prosecute those end-users because they're guilty of receiving stolen goods. So since your customer target base usually isn't some malay-speaking asian country, but rather mainstream users in most countries which speak english and ARE signatories to the Berne convention, you are going to be able to have a legal stand.
Take fonts. Te USA made all fonts FREE. No one can charge for fonts because charging for fonts means you can inhibit the rights in the US' 1st amendment (Freedom of speech and expression) when you charge someone to print something using your font. (the Goudy relatives got greedy and brought the case to the Supreme court)
Wrong, on two counts.
Firstly, you are referring to typefaces. Fonts are the digital file which contains a program which generates the typeface. That's a simple description, but one which the layman can understand. The actual TTF font file itself, is an original creation and naturally is under copyright. Typefaces however (the visual depiction that the font file generates) could not be placed under copyright. Likewise, bitmap fonts were immune to copyright. Both typefaces and bitmap fonts were classes as insufficiently creative to warrant copyright protection. This is the case with the Goudy case - while TTF font files are protected, the visual depiction of the typefaces wasn't. So anyone else could draw the same font and redistribute the new file.
Secondly, however - this was back in '93. The law has changed since then, and typefaces are now protected by copyright. So no - neither FONTs or typefaces, are public domain.
I know this because I spent $2500.00+ pursuing a group of thieves from Russia that published a CD of "Background Images and Textures" most of which were my own and downloaded form my first interent site Green Moose Game Supply aways back in 1991. Russia couldn't touch them. No copyright law.
The problem here is not copyright law. Russia DOES have copyright law, and upholds it in its courts. The reason why you didn't get anywhere is because you only spent $2500. If you actually think you're going to get Russian police to chase down their own people and lock them up for some American guy, you're going to have to throw a lot more at them than $2500. This isn't a case of lack of law, but a lack of people caring. Telling anyone its okay because in your experience they're not going to get in trouble, just confuses the problem further, rather than helping fix it.
If you paid a fee to download them it would depend on the laws of your couuntry. In the USA you could still get hit with "intellectual theft" but the SIMS people didn't really make the models. They bought them. You go buy yours from the same source and you can run amuck!
Paying a fee to download something doesn't transfer its rights to you. In the LEGAL FAQ post I covered the rights that are implied by copyright. Right to: Distribution, Attribution, Reproduction, Integrity, Display, Performance, and Adaptation. If you buy a song from a music site, you don't actually have any of these rights transferred to you. You can play it yourself, but that doesn't even give you the right to performance or display - ie, the public performance of the work.
If you buy a 3D model from a site, you only have the rights transferred to you that are implicitly stated in the purchasing license. If it says you're allowed to use them in your own games, then you have the right to reproduction. That doesn't mean the copyright has been transferred, and it doesn't mean the copyright is null and void. It simply means you have purchased the right to use it. You can't then place another copyright on it because "you've bought it!". Of course if the 3D models waiver all rights on purchase, you can do whatever you want with it - including reselling it.
If you don't 100% that what you're using is in the public domain, eg - if you don't have proof that the author of it has explicitly placed it in the public domain, then it's under copyright and you have to respect it and only use rights which have been given to you as the end user, if any.
+BlackD