A difference is that while copyright restrictions as such are nearly universal worldwide, any further restrictions like those imposed by DMCA are USA-specific, so for decades there have been actions (and software tools) that were considered 'shady' in USA but legal and condoned elsewhere.

Region-lock is one thing. Selling "chipped" game consoles is another - while piracy is obviously a clear driver, as long as no pirated software exchanges hands, in many places outside USA it was legal to sell consoles with pre-installed mod-chips that can play "game backups", so major legitimate electronics stores did so.