Windows 7 - are imported cds illegal?

Are these 2 Green Day japanese cds a pirated, bootleg or a legal release:

1. Foot In Mouth
2. Bowling, Bowling, Bowling, Parking, Parking

All I know is, that they're out of print, but not sure if they're legal to buy.
I never see those 2 cds in the stores, only online stores like Amazon and eBay.
What about other non-American (import) cds, are those illegal?

Also, what about Asian VCDs, are they legal, or are they just pirated movies?
Thanks.

Waiting on U.S. congress....

Welcome, heather2012.
Cheers

hi heather, and welcome to sevenforums,

the green day discs you mention are from live performances in japan, and were only released in that country - that's why you won't find them in the shops at home (according to wikipedia) - there's nothing illegal about them.

there's also nothing necessarily illegal about other import cd's - maybe some are pirate, maybe some are official - you can't just assume that all imports are pirated.

i would avoid vcd's, not because of copyright concersns, but picture quality issues.

I just hope that if they're imported there are not any Region Code issues. That would be a stupid problem to run into.

no region codes on Audio CD's, that I am aware of.

VCD's on the other hand are Color System based, NTSC, PAL, SECAM, so stand-alone DVD players can only play discs that are of their Color System.
I am unsure if VCD's use region codes as well.

There could be legal releases of both of those and also illegal releases of both.

Unless you trust your source, you wouldn't know whether you are buying a legal version or a bootleg. The world is full of counterfeiters and many of them are in Asia.

There is nothing illegal about imported CDs.

Is downloading Green Day concerts from youtube, then converting them to divx and mp3, illegal? I was just wondering, because of Megaupload is shut down now.

I don't trust downloading bootlegs from any site anymore, but I'm not sure if youtube is legal? Are they still bootlegs?I only want concerts, and TV Appearances of Green Day, for my iPod Classic 160gb. Thanks.

Yes