Copyrights well... it's like you make up some deals (in your western family) and then you go somewhere else (to the east) and ask people there to live by your deals. Because you see yourself as the One everybody must follow. And it works as long as you have a (military) might to protect your interests. BTW this is the principle how any legal system works, all over the scale from a family law to international law. And now imagine yourself loosing that might: two lost wars, economic crisis... well, deals made up by clowns have never been taken seriously.