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If we allow industry to drive the ship? I've got very bad news for you......

In Trump's new NAFTA he retained the legal structure for fossil fuel companies to sue local, state, and federal governments if they pass laws that hurt their business. (Most other companies which were allowed them in NAFTA are stripped out, which is at least some progress.) Go take a look at Investor-State Dispute Settlement Panels.

ISDS arbitration is needed because the potential for bias can be high in situations where a foreign investor is seeking to redress injury in a domestic court, especially against the government itself.

You know that sort of bias, where people don't want the environment they live in ruined and their world polluted, which prevents them from being able to see the wisdom in ensuring fossil fuel company profits.

Phones are excluded along with golf clubs and plastic napkins for some reason.

What are plastic napkins?

Xmas ornaments (what about other holiday ornaments? Mardi Gras beads for example!)
Sunglasses
Bras
more...

What Would Evade $250 Billion In Trump China Tariffs? Golf Clubs, Plastic Napkins, Cell Phones, More

Here's what is covered:

https://ustr.gov/sites/default...

No, more like what the US did to Canada. Now that your trade surplus has dropped to only $20 billion, you're freaking out with the excuse that you need to dump your highly subsidized milk and put more Canadian farmers out of work.
Wahh, wahh, we only have a $20 billion trade surplus with this country, lets throw some tariffs on them, it'll raise the price of a house for the average American by 20 grand, and those lumber barons can buy another yacht.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/po...
https://ustr.gov/countries-reg...

NAFTA has enabled American farmers to dump cheap ag products there, totally destroying what ag economy they had.

1. How does NAFTA, which is an agreement between the US, Canada and Mexico, change how US agriculture producers can sell in Guatemala?
2. How are US farmers, who have a much higher labor cost plus higher shipping costs, able to compete with the cheap Guatemalan labor available to local farmers?

There certainly has been an uptick in Guatemalan immigration to the US coinciding with the rise of the drug trade and accompanying violence, but I haven't previously seen anything that attributes the rise to NAFTA. Perhaps you mean CAFTA-DR?

Next someone'll tell me that Mexico is paying for a wall.

You guys really haven't figured it out yet ?

US trade deficit with Mexico : 63.2b $ in 2016 (1 year : https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/americas/mexico)
Cost of wall : Est 70b $ (in left-wing media dollars : http://time.com/4745350/donald-trump-border-wall-cost-billions/).

Mexico are paying for the wall, just not with cold hard cash. I hope you finally understand the actual plan here.

The Canadian market is to the USA market what the USA market is to the Asian market.

So why the fuck should Apple give even one shit about the small north-american market?

Canada is the #1 trade partner of the US ... So assuming your analogy holds, they would give quite a few shits about the US market.

So I went back and searched for the change to the verbiage to Intellectual-Property chapter in the Final TPP and I couldn't find the change. As of today it's still "paragraph" https://ustr.gov/trade-agreeme...

It looks like at least half the categories are semiconductor manufacturing equipment and parts. That industry is dominated by American (Applied Materials, LAM Research, KLA-Tencor) and Japanese (Tokyo Electron) companies. It's going to be great for them.

Free trade works and protectionism is still loser economics, no matter how much nativists might wish it otherwise.

ISDS appears to interfere with Article III of the constitution; were the TPP a treaty and not an agreement it would be constitutional.

It's not unusual for trade agreements to be hashed out without the public being able to read the drafts, but that's part of the problem, isn't it?

Politicians care about 70 year old and their problems because they show up at the polls at twice the rate of 35 year olds.

That's not true, and I can prove it here and now. You know WHO the Obama admin cares the most about? Hollywood. Why? Because Hollywood gives him the WHAT he cares most about: Free branding. And I say "free" lightly because it's very powerful branding that's worth a lot, even though it's given away for free.

Do you know what prompted Obama to skip the Senate (as required by the Constitution) when he signed ACTA? This did:

https://ustr.gov/sites/default...

And let's not forget this:

http://boingboing.net/2012/01/...

Anyways what were you saying...oh yeah, old poeple. Well no, Obama cares much more about the branding provided by Hollywood. And since they provide it to him free of charge, it doesn't count towards that money in politics that he rants against, because after all, nobody spent a red cent on that branding, just the actors donate their time.

Remember this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Or this?

http://www.hollywoodreporter.c...

Yeah, politicians, such as Obama, prioritize branding more than votes.

I'm going to have to ask for a citation on this one.
According to the "special 301 report" only other countries pirate, while life in the US is full of non-pirating law-abiding citizens...

http://www.ustr.gov/sites/defa...

Even Canada is on the list, i guess because our copyright laws are not to the US' liking?
"Canada remains on the Watch List in 2014. "

Sugar Cane

Unfortunately, the US maintains tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) for imports of raw cane sugar, refined sugar, specialty sugar, and sugar-containing products.

If imported sugar products did not have the trade restrictions, they would be cheaper for use in confectionary, foodstuffs, and for biofuel.

You tell me. The letters to Obama mostly came from unions.

http://www.ustr.gov/acta

Now I don't know if you're pro union, but one thing that disturbs me about unions is that you are all too often required to fund their political causes (in the form of dues,) even if you object to them, or else they'll see to it that you get fired. They're supposedly on your side, but your union boss who often makes more than your real boss will call a strike a win even if you lose your job in the process. Meanwhile he keeps his, and he's seen as a heroic champion of the people. Unions have their roots in the mafia, and it shows.

Not really. Overbearing copyrights and patents are a government problem. Without a government to enforce them, neither can exist. Hollywood can't put you in jail, but the government can. Hollywood may be able to sue you, but only the government can pry the cash out of your cold dead fingers.

And in case you haven't noticed, Hollywood virtually owns the Democratic party. Obama himself massively benefited from those photo shoots and endorsements from Hollywood celebrities, so he had to pay back his debt:

http://www.ustr.gov/webfm_send/1862

http://www.ustr.gov/acta

Because of them, Obama deliberately broke the rules of the constitution and ratified ACTA without running it through the senate. If he had, it would have certainly failed due to the anti-SOPA momentum at the time. He knew that, so he skirted around the constitution.

On the contrary, the tea party movement was vehemently against SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA, and so was the libertarian movement.

If you think it is mostly an R problem, you're a bit deluded.

Not really. Overbearing copyrights and patents are a government problem. Without a government to enforce them, neither can exist. Hollywood can't put you in jail, but the government can. Hollywood may be able to sue you, but only the government can pry the cash out of your cold dead fingers.

And in case you haven't noticed, Hollywood virtually owns the Democratic party. Obama himself massively benefited from those photo shoots and endorsements from Hollywood celebrities, so he had to pay back his debt:

http://www.ustr.gov/webfm_send/1862

http://www.ustr.gov/acta

Because of them, Obama deliberately broke the rules of the constitution and ratified ACTA without running it through the senate. If he had, it would have certainly failed due to the anti-SOPA momentum at the time. He knew that, so he skirted around the constitution.

On the contrary, the tea party movement was vehemently against SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA, and so was the libertarian movement.

If you think it is mostly an R problem, you're a bit deluded.

Make no mistake about it, this IS the government doing it. What happened is the government has effectively given the MPAA governing powers.

The whole reason ACTA is currently law is because Hollywood basically purchased Obama. If he ran it through the houses, as is required in the constitution, it wouldn't have passed due to the recent furor over SOPA. So, he just ignored the constitution and signed it anyways. If you need proof, look here:

http://www.ustr.gov/acta
http://www.ustr.gov/webfm_send/1862 (PDF)
http://www.ustr.gov/webfm_send/1740 (PDF)

All of those "free" poses, endorsements, and photo shoots from Hollywood celebrities weren't actually free, and Obama knew that. He had to take care of those who got him elected in order to get re-elected. This is the "change" that many "hoped" for.

Make no mistake about it, this IS the government doing it. What happened is the government has effectively given the MPAA governing powers.

The whole reason ACTA is currently law is because Hollywood basically purchased Obama. If he ran it through the houses, as is required in the constitution, it wouldn't have passed due to the recent furor over SOPA. So, he just ignored the constitution and signed it anyways. If you need proof, look here:

http://www.ustr.gov/acta
http://www.ustr.gov/webfm_send/1862 (PDF)
http://www.ustr.gov/webfm_send/1740 (PDF)

All of those "free" poses, endorsements, and photo shoots from Hollywood celebrities weren't actually free, and Obama knew that. He had to take care of those who got him elected in order to get re-elected. This is the "change" that many "hoped" for.

Make no mistake about it, this IS the government doing it. What happened is the government has effectively given the MPAA governing powers.

The whole reason ACTA is currently law is because Hollywood basically purchased Obama. If he ran it through the houses, as is required in the constitution, it wouldn't have passed due to the recent furor over SOPA. So, he just ignored the constitution and signed it anyways. If you need proof, look here:

http://www.ustr.gov/acta
http://www.ustr.gov/webfm_send/1862 (PDF)
http://www.ustr.gov/webfm_send/1740 (PDF)

All of those "free" poses, endorsements, and photo shoots from Hollywood celebrities weren't actually free, and Obama knew that. He had to take care of those who got him elected in order to get re-elected. This is the "change" that many "hoped" for.

According to this fascinating PDF, kat is very much on the radar, along with Pirate Bay, IsoHunt, Btjunkie, torrentz, Rutracker, zamunda, warez-bb and others, including, of course, Demonoid. I don't doubt that it's someone's job to scour the net for this stuff of course... but I do doubt that they get many scoops here at /.

http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/reports-and-publications/2012-1

With things like:

In November 2011, new draft legislation was introduced into Parliament that would prohibit the overseas
storage of any Australian electronic health records. This would pose a significant trade barrier for U.S.
information technology companies with data centers located in the United States or anywhere else outside
of Australia.

My main beef with Obama is that he claims to be everything he is not.

The biggest whopper is that he claimed to want transparent government. That apparently didn't matter when he unilaterally ratified ACTA without taking it through the senate (as is normal for any treaty) and without anybody but himself even being able to read it (granted there were leaks, we shouldn't depend upon leaks from a supposedly transparent government) He just signed our digital freedoms away without asking anybody.

Whats pathetic is how he happily parades around hollywood with the celebrities, and the fans of celebrities eat it up. Meanwhile they don't even realize that the celebrities themselves lobbied hard for him to take these freedoms away from us.

http://www.ustr.gov/webfm_send/1862

Among a bunch of other supporters:

http://www.ustr.gov/acta/

My main beef with Obama is that he claims to be everything he is not.

The biggest whopper is that he claimed to want transparent government. That apparently didn't matter when he unilaterally ratified ACTA without taking it through the senate (as is normal for any treaty) and without anybody but himself even being able to read it (granted there were leaks, we shouldn't depend upon leaks from a supposedly transparent government) He just signed our digital freedoms away without asking anybody.

Whats pathetic is how he happily parades around hollywood with the celebrities, and the fans of celebrities eat it up. Meanwhile they don't even realize that the celebrities themselves lobbied hard for him to take these freedoms away from us.

http://www.ustr.gov/webfm_send/1862

Among a bunch of other supporters:

http://www.ustr.gov/acta/

Mmmm, I think you're wrong... read here: http://www.ustr.gov/tpp

It would be fun to see U.S. threaten China about blacklisting them. Oh, wait, they can't because U.S. is so dependent on China that it would hurt U.S. more than it would hurt China.

Surprise, China is already on the Priority Watch List in the "Special 301" report: http://www.ustr.gov/webfm_send/2849

Other nations you may have heard of that are already on this list include: Canada, India, Israel, and Pakistan. Being named in this list, as the ambassador suggested might happen to Spain, does not mean that the U.S. is starting some kind of trade blockade or economic war with Spain.

Does the Sinde law sound bad? Yes. But the ultimate responsibility and/or blame lies with the Spanish government. Insinuating that the only reason the law was created and passed is that the U.S. threatened Spain with an act of war is silly hyperbole.

Don't make me load Flash then have to click twice to allow it store date on my machine please - I just want to read a document.

Source is here: http://www.ustr.gov/node/6520 (pdf)

Here's some Pastebin goodness: http://pastebin.com/Q5WzwXq0

With the E-PARASITE Act a bill is being discussed in the House that would allow US authorities to censor foreign websites without a hearing. At the same time, the US trade representative is making a formal inquiry within the WTO rule framework about the workings of China's Great Firewall, citing the infringement of internet censorship on the US's and its private businesses' commercial interests as the reason for inquiry and implicitly complaining about the fact that there is no possibility for US companies to get a hearing with Chinese authorities in case their website should be censored. Go figure...

"An Internet website that can be accessed in China is increasingly a critical element for service suppliers aiming to reach Chinese consumers, and a number of U.S. businesses, especially small- and medium-sized enterprises, have expressed concerns regarding the adverse business impacts from periodic disruptions to the availability of their websites in China. While the United States believes that the best Internet policy is to encourage the free flow of information globally, the United Statesâ(TM) WTO request relates specifically to the commercial and trade impact of the Internet disruptions."

www.ustr.gov

Again, read the update:

Update: June 7th, 2011 - Several important things to note, the BC-H series H.264 cards do not have at traditional firmware that is loaded. Everything is accessed directly from the driver / user space applications. Secondly, we report sales of each encoder to MPEGLA and pay any necessary patent fees for the sale of each encoder, meaning that any cards purchased from Bluecherry already have the patent protection from MPEGLA for the device level encoder.

http://www.bluecherrydvr.com/2011/05/multi-input-h-264-linux-supported-encoder-cards/

That said, not every country accept such patents. I know mine doesn't, and its proudly listed in the 301 report.

Option 2:
[Paragraph 3(a) shall not affect the possibility for a judicial or administrative authority, in accordance with the Parties legal system, requiring the service provider to terminate or prevent an infringement, nor does it affect the possibility of the parties establishing procedures governing the removal or disabling of access to information

That comes from page 21 of the official draft text available here (PDF).

Thanks, having read that I can see it's not as crazy as some people suggest. For quick understanding, here is the ACTA FAQ http://www.ustr.gov/acta-fact-sheet-march-2010 The FAQ is in line with the leaked document. Page 9, under Border Agreements Section 2 "3. Where a traveler's personal baggage contains goods of a non-commercial nature within the limits of duty-free allowance and there are no material indications to suggest the goods are part of commercial traffic, each Party may consider to leave such goods, or part of such goods, outside the scope of this section]"

Replying to myself, but the text of the draft (pdf)

Might as well include a list of contact numbers, both phone and fax

Vouching to get in and never seeing anyone above you like in World War II allied prison camps worked decently but is it scalable? If you could establish a backbone then go back a few decades and its people going over to their friends house (who happens to have access to the backbone or knows someone who does) to get data. Of course it won't be the latest stuff as this introduces lag into distribution. Then there is the sheer amount of data which is what p2p solves right now, someone having that exact mp3 your looking for would be rare in such a system. Of course the greatest weakness of such a system is if rights-holders actually offered access, decent prices, and sane formats for their information.. I know the Ubuntu One Music Store in Canada doesn't get any major record label music - perhaps this is what 301 status actually translates into ;) They won't let me be a customer!

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is apparently 'committed to helping people to circumvent government internet filtering,'

You might have got that a bit confuzed: US only circumvents in the case of the Cuba's, Iran's etc of the world - it helps destabilize our enemies. For everyone else like NZ, WE are committed to forcing the world to filter as conditions on our trade treaties. (in this case, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement (TPP FTA) with Singapore, Chile, New Zealand, Brunei Darussalam, Australia, Peru and Vietnam.

As an American, I feel it's quite certain that USA politicians are against transparency; a lot of their funding comes from the people that want it passed. However, trying to reach that conclusion from the article is moronic.

I agree that the article itself is short on details, but luckily we don't have to look very far at the "official" evidence we are permitted to see to find their priorities and aims that paint a pretty damning picture that US lobby groups (i.e. the IIPA - International Intellectual Property Alliance) and their bought and paid for US politicians are the main instigators behind ACTA. Given the official data we do have, It would be very naive indeed to start give them any benefit of the doubt on the secret speculative ACTA treaty, especially since they are making every effort to keep it out of the public eye.

If France and Italy haven't actually stated that they fear U.S. retaliation, then that's just speculation.

Yeah, just like everything else we know about ACTA - it is ALL speculation and no "official" information. However we don't have to look very far at the "official" evidence we are permitted to see to find their priorities and aims that paint a pretty damning picture that US lobby groups (i.e. the IIPA - International Intellectual Property Alliance) and their bought and paid for US politicians are the main instigators behind ACTA. Given the official data we do have, It would be very naive indeed to start give them any benefit of the doubt on the secret speculative ACTA treaty, especially since they are making every effort to keep it out of the public eye.

Who's representing the US in the ACTA negotiations. If it's just the usual **AA people

Once again, the USTR is, ostensibly, the US representative for negotiating ACTA. Currently this position is held by Ron Kirk. The official positions of this office can be found at their website here. Contacting the office via official channels can be done by reading through this contact page. The official USTR position and stance regarding ACTA can be found here. Finally, if you search for, "US Trade Representative ACTA," on google then you can find a link on the page titled, "US Trade Rep wants your input on ACTA Boing Boing," which is supposed to be a place that discusses how you can give the USTR input regarding ACTA. Unfortunately, I cannot access boing boing from work, and cannot link to it directly.

Any other questions?

Who's representing the US in the ACTA negotiations. If it's just the usual **AA people

Once again, the USTR is, ostensibly, the US representative for negotiating ACTA. Currently this position is held by Ron Kirk. The official positions of this office can be found at their website here. Contacting the office via official channels can be done by reading through this contact page. The official USTR position and stance regarding ACTA can be found here. Finally, if you search for, "US Trade Representative ACTA," on google then you can find a link on the page titled, "US Trade Rep wants your input on ACTA Boing Boing," which is supposed to be a place that discusses how you can give the USTR input regarding ACTA. Unfortunately, I cannot access boing boing from work, and cannot link to it directly.

Any other questions?

Who's representing the US in the ACTA negotiations. If it's just the usual **AA people

Once again, the USTR is, ostensibly, the US representative for negotiating ACTA. Currently this position is held by Ron Kirk. The official positions of this office can be found at their website here. Contacting the office via official channels can be done by reading through this contact page. The official USTR position and stance regarding ACTA can be found here. Finally, if you search for, "US Trade Representative ACTA," on google then you can find a link on the page titled, "US Trade Rep wants your input on ACTA Boing Boing," which is supposed to be a place that discusses how you can give the USTR input regarding ACTA. Unfortunately, I cannot access boing boing from work, and cannot link to it directly.

Any other questions?

If I recall correctly, currently the US Trade Representative is acting as the United States representative* to the ACTA talks (officially). That said, you can find the office of the US Trade Rep here. Currently, the man serving on that post is Ron Kirk. You can find contact information for the USTR here. A further Google search for, "US ACTA representative," turns up these results, the first of which appears to be a boingboing site requesting public input regarding ACTA (I cannot confirm this as I cannot access boingboing from work).

That should get you started. If you want more information, I suggest using Google and improving your Google-Fu friend. The intrawebz are your friend ;)

*: I am making the assumption that you are a United States citizen. This, of course, is based on absolutely no facts, as you have revealed nothing regarding your nationality. If you are not from the US, you can still probably use Google and Wikipedia to do your own search regarding your ACTA representatives. Say what you will that such an assumption is based on hedonism and/or nationalism, but I have nothing better to go off as you have revealed no information regarding the country of your residence/origin.

If I recall correctly, currently the US Trade Representative is acting as the United States representative* to the ACTA talks (officially). That said, you can find the office of the US Trade Rep here. Currently, the man serving on that post is Ron Kirk. You can find contact information for the USTR here. A further Google search for, "US ACTA representative," turns up these results, the first of which appears to be a boingboing site requesting public input regarding ACTA (I cannot confirm this as I cannot access boingboing from work).

That should get you started. If you want more information, I suggest using Google and improving your Google-Fu friend. The intrawebz are your friend ;)

*: I am making the assumption that you are a United States citizen. This, of course, is based on absolutely no facts, as you have revealed nothing regarding your nationality. If you are not from the US, you can still probably use Google and Wikipedia to do your own search regarding your ACTA representatives. Say what you will that such an assumption is based on hedonism and/or nationalism, but I have nothing better to go off as you have revealed no information regarding the country of your residence/origin.

This is about "special 301" reviews, which are a scheme for applying diplomatic pressure on countries that do trade things that US companies don't like. Anything submitted that doesn't relate to a specific issue with a specific country is irrelevant.

If you want to bitch about ACTA, write your congressional representative.

How can you say that ACTA is secret? I encourage everyone to review the agenda of the recently completed 6th round of talks which is available on the USTR site. It's nearly 80 words long for heaven's sake, and only two thirds of it is about the dates, the rooms and what meals are being served. How much more open can we get?

And please note that on Friday morning we discussed your desire for transparency. We gave it the consideration that we believe it deserved; you can see the results for yourselves.

Sincerely,
Your US Trade Representative (name withheld)

Anytime I feel bad about the current state of affairs here in America a story shows up with EU, UK, Australia, or Canada doing something that would be worse.

Dont' let that lull you into a false sense of security - The US is the main actor behind most of these laws being passed so you will probably find that it is just the boiling frog method of shafting these laws in. Know your enemy. "THEY" are the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), and they have the full political clout of the US government behind them - working to subvert democratic process in just about every country in the world via stealth taxes/three strikes/no presumption of innocence for the sheeple. Countries sign on to this in exchange for "Free Trade" deals. Examples:

New Zealand Reintroduces 3 Strikes:
"IIPA testifies in support of the initiation of negotiations for a Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement (TPP FTA) with Singapore, Chile, New Zealand, Brunei Darussalam, Australia, Peru and Vietnam."... "Specific problems in some of the TPP countries are outlined in the Special 301 reports from 2009 for Chile, Peru, Brunei, and Vietnam".
Where "specific problems" mean: No three strikes laws, no trade deal.

Spain's Proposed Internet Law Sparks Protest:
IIPA report card on Spain. resulting US political clout result: local laws and taxes supporting mafiaa industry.

The sad part is that even though countries that want to be in on these trade "deals" are required to implement draconian anti-internet laws and filters, obliged to extradite civil cases to the US for trial (software piracy in this case), the resulting "Free Trade" agreement rewards generaly do not benefit the countries involved! Which begs the question, who does benefit... perhaps just the politicians who signed off on the deal?

The only way I can see to fight this kind of slide is to create a black list of any group/industry that lobbies any government in support these kinds of anti-democratic process trade deals. If any group supports trade deals that required destroying the internet, then the internet could become one humongous nightmare of bad press blog artices against your industry group. Seems only fair - shouldn't be able to have their cake and eat it too.

Anytime I feel bad about the current state of affairs here in America a story shows up with EU, UK, Australia, or Canada doing something that would be worse.

Dont' let that lull you into a false sense of security - The US is the main actor behind most of these laws being passed so you will probably find that it is just the boiling frog method of shafting these laws in. Know your enemy. "THEY" are the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), and they have the full political clout of the US government behind them - working to subvert democratic process in just about every country in the world via stealth taxes/three strikes/no presumption of innocence for the sheeple. Countries sign on to this in exchange for "Free Trade" deals. Examples:

New Zealand Reintroduces 3 Strikes:
"IIPA testifies in support of the initiation of negotiations for a Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement (TPP FTA) with Singapore, Chile, New Zealand, Brunei Darussalam, Australia, Peru and Vietnam."... "Specific problems in some of the TPP countries are outlined in the Special 301 reports from 2009 for Chile, Peru, Brunei, and Vietnam".
Where "specific problems" mean: No three strikes laws, no trade deal.

Spain's Proposed Internet Law Sparks Protest:
IIPA report card on Spain. resulting US political clout result: local laws and taxes supporting mafiaa industry.

The sad part is that even though countries that want to be in on these trade "deals" are required to implement draconian anti-internet laws and filters, obliged to extradite civil cases to the US for trial (software piracy in this case), the resulting "Free Trade" agreement rewards generaly do not benefit the countries involved! Which begs the question, who does benefit... perhaps just the politicians who signed off on the deal?

The only way I can see to fight this kind of slide is to create a black list of any group/industry that lobbies any government in support these kinds of anti-democratic process trade deals. If any group supports trade deals that required destroying the internet, then the internet could become one humongous nightmare of bad press blog artices against your industry group. Seems only fair - shouldn't be able to have their cake and eat it too.

Oh don't worry. THEY will lobby/bribe 3 strikes laws into existence pretty much everywhere.

Know your enemy. "THEY" are the International Intelectual Property Alliance (IIPA), and they have the full political clout of the US government behind them - working to subvert democratic process in just about every country in the world via three strikes/no presumption of innocence for the sheeple. As one small example of many, check out their recent "report" on Spain. Witness the resulting political clout and of course, the result they were after with local laws against P2P. Spain is the 8th largest economy in the world - not so easy to boss around if unwilling to cooperate. UK, France appear to be more than happy to bend over for IIPA without any fight - at least Spain managed to keep judicial process in the loop, for now at least.
All of it does not bode well for tiny countries like NZ that do not stand much chance against combined international coercion from the "IIPA Club".

Here you go. No doubt a native speaker could improve it, and maybe someone with a bit of time can find Spanish versions of the links I haven't replaced.

España ha vuelto a mostrarse mucho más sabia que Francia o el Reino Unido en cuanto a rendirse ante las presiones de los lobbys internacionales. Me explico: el gobierno español, como cualquier gobierno, ha sido sujeto a presiones políticas intensas. No hay premios para adivinar quién ha hecho el mayor esfuerzo para cambiar el sistema democrático aquí en España y por todo el mundo: sí, como siempre, EEUU. La demostración: aquí está el informe 301 anual del IIP de EEUU, que menciona España con China, Rusia, y varios otros países como los peores infractores por no ceder a las exigencias de propiedad intelectual de los "autores" estadounidenses. El resumen del informe 301: Metas de EEUU aquí y en otras partes del mundo:

Las prioridades principales de la Administración este año siguen ser tratar debilidades en protección de y de hacer respetar los derechos de propiedad intelectual [DPI]... Aunque el Informe Especial 301 de este año muestra progreso positivo en muchos países, problemas endémicos de falsificación y piratería han continuado... lo que indica la necesidad de regímenes más fuertes de [protegir] y hacer repetar los DPI en esos países.

Cómo crees que "ayudan" a países como España a implementar regímenes más fuertes de DPI? Por el proceso democrático y escuchar la voluntad de la gente? (Chantaje, extorsiones y corrupción son palabras más adecuadas). Ay, pero se me olvidé, aquí en EEUU llamamos al proceso "difundir la democracia", qué tonto soy.

Lo que tenemos es un país extremadamente poderoso que corre por este pequeño planeta con un palo político excepcionalmente grande, pegando hasta que se someta cualquier país que se atreva a escuchar la voluntad de su gente con respeto a su idea de lo que es hacer respetar la propiedad intelectual (o cualquier otra idea). No me creas así de fácil: intenta leer el "Informe Especial 2009 de la Alianza Internacional de Propiedad Intelectual (IIPA)" [inglés] sobre España. El resumen ejecutivo para los perezosos [o los que no leen el inglés]:

La piratería por Internet en España sigue empeorando, tanto que muchas de las industrias de copyright creen que España tiene el peor problema de piratería por Internet per capita en Europa y una de las tasas de conjunto de piratería por Internet en el mundo. Los altos niveles de piratería se agravan por las políticas del gobierno español de: (1) "despenalizar" la distribución P2P de archivos (reflejado en la Circular de 2006 de la Fiscalía General) y (2) fallar en establecer los requisitos mínimos a nivel de la UE en cuanto a las responsabilidades de los proveedores de servicios de Internet según el Directivo de E-Commercio para que los dueños de derechos tengan las herramientas necesarias para hacer respetar sus derechos en Internet. Por resultado, la policía ha dejado de tomar acciones en Internet por las incertezas legales, y la Fiscalía ha pedido que sobresean casos criminales actuales contra webs ilegales de portales y vínculos. Es i

They still are, generally (Rounding three years in Madrid quite soon) - Lately a judge decided that P2P sites are okay for private sharing. However, the government tries to slip in above kind of Internet law ruling for quite some time now, it is not the first time and sure it will be not the last time.

I agree, the Spanish and its current government are really good when it comes to the internet (Also living in Madrid 7 years or so). Spain has once again demonstrated itself far more wise than France, UK when it comes to bowing to international lobbying pressure. Let me explain: The Spanish government, like all the worlds governments, has been under intense lobbying pressure ("presiones políticas"). You get no points for guessing who has been working the hardest to change the democratic system here in Spain and around the world: Yes that's right, good old US of A. Proof: Here is last years US annual IIP 301 report lumping Spain along side China, Rusia, and many others as the worst offenders for not bowing to intellectual property demands of the United States "authors". Summary of 301 report: Aims of the US here and elsewhere in the world:

The Administration's top priorities this year continue to be addressing weak IPR protection and enforcement... Although this year's Special 301 Report shows positive progress in many countries, rampant counterfeiting and piracy problems have continued... indicating a need for stronger IPR regimes and enforcement in those countries.

How do you think they are "helping" countries like Spain implement stronger IPR regimes? Through democratic process and listening to the will of the people? (blackmailing, extorting and corrupting are more applicable words). Oh I forgot, here in the US we call the process "spreading democracy", silly me.

What we have got is a extremely powerful country running around this little planet with an exceptionally big political stick, beating any country into submission that dares listen to the will of its people over their idea of Intellectual property enforcement (and anything else). Don't believe me: try reading the "INTERNATIONAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ALLIANCE (IIPA) 2009 SPECIAL REPORT" on Spain. (their title, not mine sorry - I guess they want to shout the message). First line summary for the lazy:

Executive Summary: Internet piracy in Spain continues to worsen, such that many of the copyright industries believe that Spain has the worst per capita Internet piracy problem in Europe and one of the worst overall Internet piracy rates in the world. Exacerbating the high piracy levels are the Spanish government’s policies of: (1) “decriminalizing” P2P file-sharing (as reflected in the 2006 Circular issued by the Attorney General) and (2) failing to establish the minimum EU-level requirements regarding liability for Internet service providers under the E-Commerce Directive so that rights holders have the necessary tools to enforce their rights on the Internet. As a result, the police have ceased taking Internet enforcement actions given the legal uncertainties, and the Attorney General has requested dismissal of current criminal cases against illegal portal and link sites. Importantly, negotiations between rights holders and the Internet service provider (ISP) community to find ways to prevent infringing content from being distributed over the ISPs’ services and/or networks finally

The ACTA initiative aims to establish international standards for enforcing intellectual property rights in order to fight more efficiently the growing problem of counterfeiting and piracy.

http://www.ustr.gov/trade-topics/intellectual-property/anti-counterfeiting-trade-agreement-acta
http://www.ustr.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/factsheets/2009/asset_upload_file917_15546.pdf

The ACTA initiative aims to establish international standards for enforcing intellectual property rights in order to fight more efficiently the growing problem of counterfeiting and piracy.

http://www.ustr.gov/trade-topics/intellectual-property/anti-counterfeiting-trade-agreement-acta
http://www.ustr.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/factsheets/2009/asset_upload_file917_15546.pdf

WTF, my country is up there with China, Russia etc as one of the worst countries about copyright, at least according to the Americans.
http://www.ustr.gov/Document_Library/Press_Releases/2009/April/USTR_Releases_2009_Special_301_Report.html