U.S. High Level Anti-Piracy Post Created

Vicissidude wrote to mention a CNN/Money article, announcing that President Bush has created a new senior-level position to fight global intellectual-property piracy From the article: "Bush has tapped Chris Israel, currently deputy chief of staff for Gutierrez, to head up the administration's anti-piracy efforts. China -- where 90 percent of music and movies are pirate copies -- will be a chief priority, Gutierrez said."

Comments

War of Foo!

[garcia]

Drug trafficking is a major problem around the world. We believe that it is costing U.S. businesses and citizens about $250 billion in tax dollars and wages," some random talking head told Reuters in an interview with reporters and editors.

The party currently running the country, tapped the resources of a random individual that is currently an up-in-coming member of the political party, to head up the administration's anti-drug efforts. A random South American Country, along with Afghanistan -- where 90 percent of cocaine and heroine originate-- will be a chief priority, this random government official said.

"Frankly, our goal is to reduce (South America and Afghanistan's drug trade) to zero," he said. This government official declined to specify a timetable, but acknowledged it could be a lengthy effort which will waste just as much tax money and resources as the users did before it while actually not eliminating anything.

He got a personal glimpse of rampant drug harvesting during visits earlier this month, when he was offered the chance to buy drugs and sell them to his own citizens, an aide said.

The United States will closely monitor a long list of anti-drug pledges these two countries made after the US government offered them huge aid packages at this month's high-level Joint Commission on Drug Trade meeting, including a promise to increase criminal prosecutions, he said.

Sounds awfully familiar doesn't it? Why do the rest of the American public sit there and refuse to acknowledge that this Anti-Piracy bullshit is nothing but a rehashed attempt to increase protections for Big Business under the guise of protecting *our* interests?

BTW - When are we going to start standing up against "lengthy wars" that have no real returns? Does no one remember that hundreds of billions of dollars have been wasted on this unending war?

Sad.

Re:War of Foo!

[shark72]

"Why do the rest of the American public sit there and refuse to acknowledge that this Anti-Piracy bullshit is nothing but a rehashed attempt to increase protections for Big Business under the guise of protecting *our* interests?"

You are not necessarily speaking for all Slashdotters when you use "our".

I have very little interest in buying a pirated DVD for China, or utilizing a P2P service to download music without permission of the copyright holder. However, I am interested in adequate healthcare, roads kept in good condition, and other quality of life issues for which our state and federal governments are primarily responsible. The government wants those additional tax dollars from the Microsofts and EAs and 20th Century Foxes and Capitol records of the world.

Whether you and I like it or not, the fact is that intellectual property is one of the US's largest exports and the income that it brings into this this country plays a major role in the quality of life we enjoy. Our government taking this steps might ultimately hinder my ability to get a copy of the latest DVD for free rather than paying the $5 rental fee or the $20 Netflix subscription or just buying the damn DVD for $20, but I don't lose any sleep over this.

Re:War of Foo!

[garcia]

The government wants those additional tax dollars from the Microsofts and EAs and 20th Century Foxes and Capitol records of the world.

It seems to even out in the end to me. Wasting billions of dollars in the short term to get back billions later (at a possible loss) via taxes doesn't make sense.

To give billions in cash, weapons, and training to people that might later use those same weapons and training back on us just doesn't make sense.

Does it?

Re:War of Foo!

[FriedTurkey]

There is 6.4 billion people in China with a 90% piracy rate. It doesn't take a leap of faith to say that's a lot of money America is losing.

Since we have no more manufacturing jobs in the US borders, thanks to outsourcing, the only thing America "manufactures" is intellectual property. It is our best interest to protect what is supporting our economy before we are have nothing left.

Re:War of Foo!

[Frymaster]

China is not Colombia

correct. and software piracy isn't the drug trade either. witness:

• columbian coca is grown in large fields visible from airplanes. dvds are pirated indoors away from prying eyes.
• coca is grown in columbia and then must imported to the purchasing country (ie, the states). dvds can be copied at or near the point of consumption.
• it's easy to detect and difficult to disguise coca and cocaine. aerial foliage colour analysis, drug sniffing dogs &c. make concealing drugs difficult. a pirated dvd can be packaged to be indistinguishable form a legit one to an untrained observer.
• drugs ruin lives. pirated dvd's waste afternoons.

if anything, the war on piracy will be more difficult and reap less benefit than the war on drugs.

Re:War of Foo!

[Shalda]

This is very different from the "war" on drugs. One of the biggest things the US exports is intellectual property. Preventing the spread of pirated American works abroad and forcing foriegn user to buy legit copies puts money into the hands of US companies, and by extension their employees and stock holders.

By contrast, the War on Drugs is about control of the people. IE, the governement doesn't trust you to make good decisions for yourself. Chris Rock very accurately summed up the problem in one short sentance: "People want to get high." By restricting the supply of drugs, the government artificially raises the price of drugs making them a very lucrative business.

China has been a member of the Berne convention since 1992, but has done a poor job of living up to their obligations under the treaty. By allowing mass piracy (and we're not talking about a little bit of file sharing, we're talking about wholesale counterfitting) China is taking money away from US companies and handing it to counterfitters within their borders.

Now, there are a number of flaws with the Berne convention (like a life + 50 copyright minimum for starters), but the US would be remiss if it didn't protect its intrests under the treaty.

Re:War of Foo!

[Vicissidude]

You have got to be kidding! Corporations don't pay taxes. Nor do the very rich.

Those corporations employ millions of Americans who do pay income tax, FICA, property tax, sales tax, etc. Every DVD, CD, or piece of software that is illegally copied overseas means less money that flows into these corporations, into those American's pockets, and into the US, state, and local governments. We could possibly employ all of our unemployed were we not losing this money. We are screwing ourselves over by not attempting to collect the money that is rightfully ours.

Furthermore, the US Federal Govt isn't spending anything on providing any sort of healthcare for the people who do pay taxes, and highways are paid for out of petro and vehicle taxes.

I would like to see the government takes some steps to address health care. However, I can also see the sort of changes required would cost a good deal of money, which we are hemorrhaging, in part, due to piracy.

I personally could give a shit about the output of the so-called US entertainment industry until and unless they start paying me to consumer their lame crapola. I don't download off P2P because they don't have anything I want and I damned well have no interest in paying some beer-oh-crat a 6 figure salary to watch out for some multinational corp that produces crap, pays no US taxes, and has few US employees (Microsoft, for instance, is doing a lot more for employment in India than they are in the US).

I don't know about the other corporations listed, but up until recently, I worked for Microsoft. They have 58,000 employees worldwide with about 30,000 in the Seattle area alone. Most of their jobs pay above the national wage average, some far above. It's estimated that each employee at Microsoft provides another 2 jobs to the local economy. All those employees pay income tax, FICA, local property taxes, and state sales tax.

Bill Gates lives right near Seattle on Mercer Island. That's the world's richest man living here, paying income tax, property tax, and sales tax. He gives to local charities since he's actually from Washington. And he's done a lot to aid the local university.

Many Microsoft millionaires, people who formerly worked for Microsoft, have stayed in this area and contribute further to Seattle. The founder of Valve Software, creater of Half-Life, is one prime example.

Microsoft is intimately tied into the Seattle economy. I'm no fan of Microsoft, but if Microsoft gets screwed, then Seattle gets screwed. That idea alone scares me since I love my home.

Uh, sovereignty?

[Andrew Tanenbaum]

The only thing the US should be doing to reduce piracy abroad is -possibly- sanctioning them - but since the US would be dead in the water in several ways (DEBT!) without China, they can't even do that.

Anti-piracy indeed...

[Soulfarmer]

They have this new post for fighting piracy, that's all great and stuff, but howcome the biggest antipiracy news concerns torrentsites and so forth? Those sites are not earning with the piracy, and because of that, are not the biggest pirating people anyhow.

People who sell pirated products (movies games and all other stuff that can be pirated) have MUCH more motivation to do their "job" and in my mind, de facto are MUCH more to blame about this whole piracy problem.

Of course, without the releasing groups there wouldn't be pirated goods for the sites or the sellers either... But still, the sellers are the biggest culprits in here...

Or then I am totally wrong, again. Would be the first time tho. To be wrong again.

Hey, just checking

[Anonymous Coward]

What percentage of rapes and murders in the U.S. each year go unsolved?

And how much money is going to dealing with that problem?

And how much money are we spending on ensuring that the profits of IP-holding corporations are not hampered by piracy-related "lost sales"?

Just curious.

Wow!

[Progman3K]

You can really buy a lot of government with your money these days!

Re:Wow!

[Progman3K]

You couldn't be more wrong!
In fact, I've been developing software since 1982.
Most of the projects were proprietary, yes, but the one I've been working on for the past 4 years IS commercial.

And with all this time, I've learned one thing; people who won't pay for software simply can't be made to pay.

The other bunch (those that do pay for it) pay without a fuss.

This new government office is only another attempt to strip away more of your rights by piling more and more restrictions on you, watching you.

It's VERY handy when everyone is a criminal. It makes ruling with an iron fist much easier.

So every way they can find to fault you makes it easier and easier to lead you to slaughter.

Protect IP this, take away freedom of the press that, and soon you've made EVERYONE a criminal.

Dark, dark thoughts on such a nice day. Sorry.

Civil Liberties Czar?

[spookymonster]

So corporations get a 'czar' to protect their civil interests. Great! When do we get a Civil Liberties/Privacy czar to protect ours?

Bueller?.....Bueller?....Bueller?....

Re:Civil Liberties Czar?

[twifosp]

Well, call me crazy, but I was under the impression that office belonged to the President of the United States. After all, each one cites and swears to the following:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Now I could be wrong, but I think the constitution is that document that has all those liberties and privacy garuntees defined and outlined in it. Go figure!

Re:Another Czar?

[Nigel_Powers]

I never get it....the past two presidents have both tried Marijuana and/or cocaine -- you'd think they'd both know that neither is worth the billions of dollars spent annually to stop the inflow. Actually, like the PATRIOT act, US drug law is aimed at getting around personal property and privacy rights of US citizens. Think I'm kidding? Take a drive through south Georgia with $20,000 cash in your car -- and get pulled over for somthing innocuous like speeding. Chances are if you are some fat, white bumpkin, the deputy will ask to search your car. If you say no, they will become suspicious and get a warrant. If you agree, they will find the money and automatically assume it is profits from illegal drug activity, unless you can prove otherwise. Once confiscated, you have to prove the source of the money before what's left (yes, what's left) will be returned. Also, these laws are passed at a time when we have more folks incarcerated for consensual crimes than in any other point in the history of the republic. Let freedom ring. Yeah, whatever.

What's Next?

[Anonymous Coward]

What this country really needs is an obsesity czar?. How's fighting the war against fat? or tooth decay?

From the "nice troll, Zonk" department

[Gothmolly]

I love the tagline, the "keeping-the-bread-buttered" department.

Now pay attention, all of you who never had a civics class:
The President is the Chief of the Executive Branch of the government.
The Executive Branch of the government is there to enforce the laws created by the Legislative Branch (aka Congress) provided that they are consistent with the Constitution, as dictated by the Judicial Branch (Supreme Court).

This is like your local Police department appointing a "Drug Czar" or a "Gang Violence Prevention Czar" or "Soccer Moms must die" Czar. All of these (except the last) are valid positions - the department, faced with particular challenges which require specific expertise, creates a subdepartment to deal with them specifically.

19 year olds living in their basement running warez sites might disagree, but that doesn't make it untrue or shady, or worthy of the old tinfoil hat.

Re:From the "nice troll, Zonk" department

[poopdeville]

The appointment of a Piracy Czar during a time of war betrays monied interests. Especially considering the current administration's propaganda regarding terrorism. It is like appointing a Jaywalking Czar during a bout of gang violence.

Excellent. Just what is needed.

[mrRay720]

Terrorism still on the rise, poverty, famine and disease running rampant through large parts of the world, growing unrest in an ever increasingly militant Middle East.... what does the US govt. come up with in these troubled times?

That's right, they bend over and take large cash injections up the rear from the corrupt media industry and spend YOUR OWN money launching lawsuits against you. Ho ho ho ho ho.

And I just adore the extreme arrogance of a US political post being created to fight *global* IP infringement. So will they be enforcing other countries laws in other countries, or will it be US law? Either way is just.... wow... too arrogant for words.

Seriously you guys, get off your damn asses and find a government that will work for the voters instead of working for the people who bribe them the most.

Re:Excellent. Just what is needed.

[typical]

It really hurts the credibility of the Slashdot.

Heh.

The US has one of the largest military budgets in the world. People like you seem to critcize that all the time, except now, when you complain they don't spend enough?

The US has *the* largest military budget in the world. (Wikipedia: "The United States military budget is larger than the military budgets of the next twenty biggest spenders combined, and six times larger than China's, which places second.")

I also can't help but notice that the person you're responding to didn't say anything about spending more on defense.

OK, US also gives billions in aid to other countries, and has countless programs and scientists working to solve all these world hunger problems.

You *do* realize that "foreign aid" is not selfless giving to fund orphans, but essentially bribery of various governments to support US interests? Nothing inherently wrong with that -- it's a lot less damaging than attacking a country to make it do what you want -- but if you think that the USG is a bunch of angels running around handing out money to people because they need money, you're nuts.

The country has an obligation to enforce all of its laws. And being that capitalism is vital to the survival of the country, it has an interest in protecting the profits of companies.

The question is whether it has an obligation to enforce *other* countries' laws. US laws absolutely do not cover what a Chinese citizen does in China.

I know you want to steal music and movies, and don't think you should be held accountable for it

Nice use of "steal" instead of "infringe on copyright" to take advantage of emotional attachment. Very neutral.

Frankly, I don't think that music copyright should last longer than fifteen years or so, and software copyright even less. And I have no problem with people infringing on the copyrights of older music. Publishers don't think about profits fifteen years in the future when deciding whether to fund someone or not. Thus, profits do jack-all to encourage funding of music production. Thus, publishers shouldn't have had copyright extension at all in the first place, except for the fact that they can afford a powerful lobby. The only people who are out arguing that copyright should last ninety years or whatever are those who have been simply brainwashed by the industry into believing in some kind of moral imperative to keep throwing money at someone who once funded some music production.

You're the type of person used as a pawn by the powerful to get their way.

That's funny, because that is exactly what I was thinking about you.

Insanity

[djpenguin808]

There's one thing that really bugs me about all the China-bashing that seems to be so popular in the capital these days...

China holds close to $700 billion of US govt. debt in T-bills

Originally, the purpose of this buying behaviour was to manipulate the fluctuation of the yuan, which until yesterday was pegged to the dollar. The unintended effect was that the US government started to spend like drunken sailors, financing all sorts of things with deficit spending. With the yuan now floating in relation to a basket of currencies instead of pegged to the dollar, the impetus to continue buying dollars to manipulate the yuan is greatly weakened.

Generally, when you owe a bank a lot of money, you don't run into the bank screaming about how evil they are, piss on the rug, and then set some trash cans on fire. It tends to make the bankers rather unwilling to keep underwriting your debt.

Isn't this the point of capitalism?

[HockeyPuck]

Ok, so one of the points of conservatism is that they are for 'Big Business', and against 'big government' and that 'big business' should govern itself. This includes the companies creating their own anti-piracy software.

So where is the justification that government needs to step in and help MSFT (who just posted record profits) fight against piracy? What is the government going to do? Put in sanctions against China? That would cause further damage to other industries (e.g. Steel).

Maybe the Fed's should call up Balmer and say "Steve, with $36B in revenues... surely you can solve your own problems without involving our tax dollars.

Good news for pirates!

[crism]

The War on Piracy will be as successful as the War on Terrorism and the War on Drugs (not to mention the War on Poverty and previously, the War on Rum). This means that we can start to see big money for the pirates, as well as turf wars and violence. Yay! Thanks, Mr. Bush!

So how does this changes things exactly?

[B11]

Are they going after guys selling DVDs in swap meets and street corners? How many can they catch? If they do start, it is only going to make bootlegs more expensive, and this leads to more competition, and since illicit money is at stake, illicit means are going to be used to protect market share. I wonder where we've seen this happen before, hmmm?

They can't shut down the servers in China, and they can't stop the Chinese from infringing (hell, they can't even stop Americans really).

So, other than posturing, what is this going to accomplish?

I guess they slap each other on the ass for coming up with a "solution."

Average Chinese Income

[iamwahoo2]

Isn't the mean annual income in China under $2000? Where do they plan to find this huge untapped market? Given an income of this amount, I think $1 is a pretty fair price for copyright protections. Perhaps the cartels should lower their prices.

Re:"Bad things are bad", said the politician

[Anonymous Coward]

And Kerry didn't bother with states he knew his bullshit wouldn't fly. Big deal.

Your proposed mass election fraud is great though. I love how you complain about Republicans and then propose that Democrats should break the law en masse to get their way. And you wonder why the DNC is perceived as a group of spolied crybabies. Lie, cheat and steal as long as you win, right?

Re:"Bad things are bad", said the politician

[BewireNomali]

Lie, Cheat, and Steal?

are you serious?????

dude, can we get a recount on those Florida and Ohio votes?

dude, can we let independent coders analyze algorithms in the new voting machines?

dude, what's really good with those WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION??????

are you fucking serious?

And isn't being an anonymous coward akin to wearing a hood with eyeholes cut out? can you even stand behind your statements? Loser.

Lol... and its interesting that you associate my "proposed mass election fraud" with democrats, since I don't have any party affiliation. lol.

Not pointless at all

[tnk1]

The creation of an office to combat piracy is hardly going to be pointless or ineffective, necessarily. It just depends on what they are going after and how they go about it.

There are some important differences between a Drug War and a Piracy War. The one thing that the Drug War has done is drive up the street price of drugs. Now, for a drug interdiction effort, that's not necessarily going to be anything special, and may even increase violence because addicts are going to get increasingly desperate to get their fix no matter what the cost. Therefore you have to attack the demand problem, not supply.

Piracy, on the other hand, relies on keeping its prices cheap to function because there is a legal alternative method to obtain their goods. No one is going to buy a pirated copy of media which may lack features and is definitely illegal unless the price savings is compelling. Right now, the price IS compelling and that's why it is a problem. However, every percent that you narrow the price gap by making it more expensive to produce, and every obstacle you raise is going to cause more and more customers to the legal channels as they reach their tolerance for dealing with unlicensed vendors. Attacking supply and transport of pirated goods, therefore, can be very effective.

A US office in charge of this effort can have a significant effect on piracy if they gain the power to provide certain targetted incentives and cooperation to their counterpart bureaucracies in target countries like China. No invasions, secret agents, or dramatic moves are required. You simply need people who know the chokepoints for the piracy and then what screws to turn to squeeze those points. The way to get this knowledge is to employ knowledgable specialists, and to do that you will need a specialist organization.

Now they have the organization, it remains to be seen if the government can actually do the rest.

I'm no fan of the *AA's, but I think that running a full-on commercial business based on other people's work is shitty. While it's true that greed in a Media company's upper management will siphon some of any extra money from removing piracy, it won't siphon all of it. That remaining extra money can be used to take risks on movies or artists that are less formulaic, but potentially much more rewarding. Some filesharing can help new artists, but taken to an industrial extreme, can ultimately limit how far they can go if the money that could be risked on them is instead being collected by pirates. As sucky as the system is today, the recording industry reinvests a lot of money to bring out new music. The piracy business contributes nothing back to either artists or studios.

OK, so let me get this straight.

[Evil Butters]

According to TFA, President Bush is very interested in stopping software, music, and movie piracy in China -- and is creating a new senior position to target global piracy and counterfeiting, which costs US companies billions.

At least for me, I am very interested in affordable health care, less pollution, better school systems, adequate road and highway infrastructure, and the ability to find a decent job that pays a decent wage. Too bad I don't have enough money to buy me some gov'ment! I guess the rest of these things will just have to take care of themselves somehow.

Whatever....

[SeaFox]

What's the point of creating a government department to fight international piracy that only has jurisdiction in the United States?

The only pirates they can go after are American citizens.

Offshoring will DESTROY all anti-IP Piracy efforts

[Travoltus]

When the IP theft czar gets done, the pirates will only be able to steal IP from the offshored factories.

The thing is, that is where all the pirates are probably getting stolen IP from now.

Ever read up on the Chevrolet Spark and the Cherry QQ? Those two cars look alike. They are both sold in China and the latter was made from plans stolen right out of the plant that makes the former.

If Bush wants to stop intellectual property piracy then he needs to stop allowing that stuff to be offshored.

Otherwise it is all a simple matter of paying off the plant management staff, what with their pennies-on-the-US-dollar salary, to cough up an email of the blueprints.

And if you think anyone will be able to do anything about it, ask Cisco what they were able to do when their routers were pirated by Huawei Corp. Cisco abandoned the lawsuit because
a) Huawai is funded by China's government;
and b) Cisco's factories are in China, which could be shut down at any time.

Read more at http://in.tech.yahoo.com/031001/137/2858q.html

You may not think offshoring is a problem but as long as it persists, IP piracy will dip for a while as the US clamps down, and then IP piracy will centralize itself in China, with the help of the Chinese government, and IP piracy will go back to its usual blazing pace.

And the US will not sanction China because corporations depend on them to produce those cheap routers and DVD players.