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Hilary Rosen from RIAA will write Iraq's Copyrights?
sould writes "The Register is reporting that Hilary Rosen is to assist in writing Iraq's Intellectual Property laws. Can't have those Iraqi's pirating Eminem now can we?"
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Copyright law is entirely separate from property law, and as such "intellectual property" as a term is an attempt to sell the concept of copyright as a property right to lessen the outcry over the continuous attack on fair use and the public domain.
If you are thinking of article 17....;
(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
Of course Iraq needs proper legislation/laws on this subject, but if you think they (US administartion)are doing this to protect Iraqi copyright holders I think you SERIOUSLY need to rethink your opinion.
I thinks thinks [INSERT disclaimer that maybe the Reg. article aint correct] that this with other stories; for example USA protecting one Minstry in Bagdad; the Minestry of Oil, shows what the real motivation behind the Iraq-war was.
No, I'm not saying that the invasion came because of copyrights or oil alone, thats just a bonus. When someone invade acountry they get to decide the legislation/laws inside that country. But selecting, among others; Hillary Rosen to help doing this says a lot about the current administartion.
After the defeat/collapse of the Third Reich/Nazi-Germany it probably went over a year befor they though about copyrights. IMHO that probably was a good thing. Other needs are far more important than copyrights right now. People are dying inside Iraq and you are thinking on copyrights?
Shame on you.
Melius mori in libertate quam vivere in servitute.
And no, I'm not trolling.
Please don't fall into the trap of believing that all Iraqis are necessarily tribal, tent-dwelling folk - Iraq has a sizeable, educated, (and often relatively westernised) middle class.
Remember, they had running water until the US and UK bombed them.
Mod early, mod often.
Here are some news stroies (Google is your friend):
* Palast, BBC journalist, says war is profit-maker for Bush allies
* Post-war carve-up to benefit CDMA standard, record industry
* Journalist says media is biased on war
I encourage you to check out Greg Palast's site. He is the BBC reporter that the original article mentions and the author of "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy". Interesting read.
I realize that Iraq is not an islamist nation in the sense that the laws of the land closely follow the teachings of the Koran as in Iran or Saudi Arabia, but Isn't intellectual property contrary to the teachings of Islam? this is what came up after a bit of google searching. Even though Iraq is largely secular, sending IP fanatics there to write their laws seems pretty culturally insensitive.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Actually, the source of the story itself is investigative journalist Gregory Palast, who did an interview with Democracy Now radio. Now, the Register article may be based on the interview that Palast did with the radio station, but that doesn't change the fact that it was Palast who did the story - and not some radio host independently reporting it as news.
If the name Gregory Palast sounds familiar to anyone, it's probably because he wrote The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, which is definitely interesting reading. The first two chapters are even freely available from his own website:
1. The Unreported Story of How They Fixed the Vote in Florida
2. The Bushes and the Billionaires Who Love Them
Experts agree: everything is fine.
They're writing a copyright law for a country that needs clean water and food? give us a break.
Besides, as somebody else mentioned here, Iraq already has copyright laws.
They are not cavemen you know.
...they just don't have copyright with a life + 75 year span. (They have life + 25 up to a maximum of 50 years) They also don't have 97.000.000.000$ fines for copyright violation.
<rant-mode>
One could reasonably argue that when it came to copyright, if nothing else, Iraq actually had more sane laws than both the US and the EU.
I'm, sure that will change real soon now though.
</rant-mode>
"First lesson," Jon said. "Stick them with the pointy end."
An occupying power that respects their international treaty obligations simply cannot rewrite laws like this. See The Geneva Convention.
I highly doubt intellectual property law is:
Unless the RIAA itself is administrating the occupation.
As you can read here and here, USA benefitted from IP theft in 1790 when Samuel Slater stole the blueprints of the the water-powered spinning frame from England and used it to build a textile industry in USA comparable to England's. England called him a traitor, but USA called him a hero and the father of the industrial revolution. Today, USA is the capitol of IP and China benefits whenever they steal some.
Most likely, enforcing US IP laws in Iraq will help USA but hurt Iraq.
Yeah, that's right: Iran's organising the shiites. I assume they're using messenger pidgeons since there's no telephone system, either land or mobile and the place is crawling with US troops.
Maybe we would like a country with less tolerance for terrorist organizations between Syria and Iran?
Probably best to stop prevoking them and making it easy for them to recruit supporters. While you're at it perhaps you'd like to ask Mr Bush why he blocked the investigations that would have prevented 9/11 (by accident, I admit. Bush was so worried about helping his business friends that he didn't consider that the FBI's warnings about a big immediate threat to the WTC might be more important).
Maybe we'd like to see a succesfull democracy between Syria, Iran, and Saudi Arabia?
If by "we" you mean the US government, then no that exactly what they don't want. What they want is a weak democracy that takes its orders from the likes of Hillary Rosen. When democracies don't make the right "free" choice then the current administration does what it did in Venezuela and gets its military attache to let the local rebels know that if the democractically elected (and popular) leader was to, say, drop down dead from having an extra hole in his head, that any new and non-elected government that lowered oil prices wouldn't have anything to worry about. He was only saved by a tip-off from his friends in OPEC.
You could also have a look at Pakistan for a model of the sort of "democracy" Bush supports: one man, one vote and the man is Gen Musharraf (holder of weapons of mass destruction, but these are nice weapons of mass destruction).
Isn't that what the Mid-East states fear the most?
Yes, but not in the way you mean. True democratic elections in almost all ME countries would lead to the current governments being toppled because of their pro-US policies.
Bush's idea of free elections is for people to decide which of his friends to vote for. The idea that an anti-US candidate will be allowed to run in Iraq is pure fantasy.
TWW
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
Zoellick is a former advisor to Enron.
Colin Powell is reported in a later PR to have said "that power usually comes responsibility and some level of respect and some level of resentment -- my three R's. Hey, write that down." (Laughter.)
Presumably the laughter was coming from Mr Joe "I wasn't responsible" Zoellick's end of the table.
TWW
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
"The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" by Greg Palast is available in the US and the UK.
The New US edition is the one to go for, since the New (and old) UK edition is censored because of the UK's oppressive libel laws and the Official Secrets Act (the latter, I believe is the case.)
UK people should order it from american sites, not UK ones if you want the uncensored version, and make sure you go for the "New US Edition."
Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce