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RIAA Sets Their Sights on Russia
Conor Turton writes to tell us that the RIAA has set their sights on Russia for their newest push into anti-piracy. A recent bill was sponsored in the Senate to deny Russia's entrance into the WTO (among other things) if they did not take major action against piracy. From the press release: "The effective protection of American intellectual property has been sorely lacking in Russia. This resolution is significant because it expresses the will of the U.S. Congress that Russia must take effective action against those who would steal America's knowledge-intensive intellectual property-based goods and services. We must not enter into political arrangements with countries ill-prepared to adequately protect our greatest economic assets."
Amazing how much they have in common. Hopefully the RIAA has as much success as the first two.
THIS is a valid reason for the US to not co-op with russia?
Major corruption? Bah
A weak if existant democracy? Bah I say!
But piracy? Close the borders, its war!
I knew the policymakers had deep pockets, but damn!
The system had the verbosity of HTML combined with all the readability of compiled assembly viewed as bitmap images
In Soviet Russia, Slashdot posts on fucking idiots.
these guys would it? Nah, they pay royalties to some other russian front who pays to ... well ... not the RIAA.
We must not enter into political arrangements with countries ill-prepared to adequately protect our greatest economic assets.
I don't know which is sadder, that the RIAA has such influence over Congress, or that this might be true.
You cannot legislate away theft. If you want to curb it, you have to remove the economic incentive to steal. For music/video, you do that by making it easier/cheaper to buy the content from a legitimate distributor than to copy it. The "man" thinks they can also do this by limiting the quality of the output from illegitimate sources (using onerous copy protection systems that probably won't work anyway). They need to believe this if they have any hope of maintaining their rather excessive markups on their product. I am of the opinion that they'll kick and scream some more and eventually mostly give up and use pricing to fight piracy. But we'll see....
China has a rather severe ``piracy'' problem as well, yet you don't hear the USA motioning to deny China access to the WTO...
I suffer from attention surplus disorder.
I'll think of something as soon as I stop laughing at the notion of "American intellectual property".
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
Hummm.....Why did this never come up when China was being admitted into the WTO???
Given the huge number of social and security issues that Russia faces at the moment (corruption, poverty, keeping track of its nuclear arsenal) I expect that they will put this item pretty low on their list of priorities.
If the RIAA really wanted this to happen, they would pretty much have to offer to pay for the enforcement and prosecution. I would not be suprised if Russia would accept an offer that involved the RIAA paying for the police salaries, especially since the police would also server more useful functions.
Then again, I dont really like the ramifications of a corporate funded police force that had the full backing and authority of the state.
Good thing that I am basically talking out my ass then, I suppose.
END COMMUNICATION
Even if Russia passes DMCA look-alike laws, they don't have any resources for enforcement.
Knowledge Intensive Intellectual Property? Please.
Here's some knowledge intensive U2 lyrics for you:
WoooAoo! WoooAoo! WoooAoo! WoooAoo!
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah,
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.
I can feeeeEEEEEEeeeeeel.
I'll subscribe to Slashdot when I see a month without a dupe, a typo, or an article the "editors" didn't read.
...that any country can "steal" something considered "property" of the other country-without committing an overt, forceful act that would normally be considered an act of war?
Something seems very wrong with this definition of "property", and every attempt to shoehorn it into that box seems to be more of a stretch then the last.
To fight the war on terror, stop being afraid.
This is the same USA that ignores any rulings handed down from the WTO that it doesn't like?
That ephemeral, rather than concrete, goods are now being touted as Americas most valuable possessions is nothing short of depressing.
A nations ability to manufacture real goods is the true measure of its vitality.
Which is why we should all consider learning Cantonese as a second language.
Some days it's just not worth
chewing through my restraints.
From TFPR: "The effective protection of American intellectual property has been sorely lacking in Russia ". (Emphasis mine..)
Why should the RUSSIANS (or insert your favorite country here) care for "protection of AMERICAN intellectual blahblah.."?... When first and foremost, they're supposed to be caring for their own "intellectual blahblah"...
And this will somehow pass, and we'll go on trying to get countries to uphold US Law in their own land, and more and more and more people will get to love us, don't you think?...
Geez...
Karma: Bad (but who really cares anyway?)
I just picked up a VAIO, and was reading the new license agreement. It now includes verbiage that SONY has the right (or a third party) to monitor the system. I have HIPAA covered data on my network, and can not allow anyone access to this data whatsoever, even if they are saying that they are looking for something else. Even a hint of a leak could cause a penalty to be triggered. I guess SONY has lost this sale. For anyone else, I would advise you ALL to look carefully at the license agreements, and think twice about SONY.
I was wondering if anyone knows how much money it costs to buy a piece of legislation. It is a well established fact that our elected officials are addicted to contributions, gifts, and other quid pro quo from special interest groups. I suspect it only costs around $5,000 to $10,000 to get a piece of legislation introduced.
If that is the case, we could start the Slashdot Political Action Committee and bury the RIAA/MPAA with some really interesting legislation. Just a thought.
I really don't think this will go very far in Russia. The Russian's might play lip service to protecting US IP rights, as the Chinese did earlier this year, but the Russian's have too many real problems for this to be a priority.
The music industry is desperate, because the fat profits are drying up. And if that "problem" weren't enough they are being faced with disruptive technologies that almost make them obsolete. Face it, big music labels are only needed for marketing. With a few thousand dollars worth of equipment you can put together a good home studio, make your own CD, and sell your music online. And if you are good enough to get some grassroots buzz, you will probably make as much that way as signing with the big label. As someone said "last throws."
Think Deeply.
That's funny because I proxy all my peer-to-peer traffic through a server in Russia. I wonder if my mass downloading has anything to do with this?
One way China is ahead of the game is their artists / music industry have given up on CD sales revenue. The artist makes money, or tries to, by selling concert tickets and with marketing tie-ins. In India bootlegs are available the day they are released. It won't come as much of a suprise to \.ers that, as the US moves toward this model, it is corporate profits and support staff who seem to be taking the heat / losing the livelyhood.
As a career sideman, I feel no pain for the old industry passing (especially the lawyers), but the job of recording engineer is going the way of the hatmaker. Actually that analogy breaks down: The job of recording artist and recording engineer are being merged and will not pay very well. There used to be more work for painters, too.
OT: There's a bigger issue here about labor and specialization - the best singer I've ever knew (hits in the 60s) was taking an occasional plumbing job in the 80s and wasn't bitter: The way he put it was: $30 an hour. This while commanding $2-$4k for 20 - 40 oldies shows a year. I didn't quit playing during the 90s net boom and still work a lot now. I also stay buzzword compliant - this year: AJAX(ugh) and psych-folk(cool).
Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.
...the US' greatest asset, or more appropriately the rubbish that the bulk of the RIAA and MPAA members produce.
C'mon, now, if that stuff is all our greatest asset, then we're pretty much done for as a country and an economic power. And it's as disturbing that Congress views it that way too.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
Singapore didn't sign on to the Berne Convention until 1998. That was after they had transformed a largely agrarian society into a technological powerhouse in the space of less than a century.
It's not a coincidence, in the sense that the USA pressures any country that wishes to trade internationally to implement copyright protection.
Singapore did the right thing, and built a strong economy first before implementing copyright--like the USA did. Russia made the mistake of implementing copyright as part of the "market reforms" that the west told them would transform their country, and look at their economy now. So now we're going to tell them that the problem is they haven't tried it hard enough...
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Actually you bias is showing: gov is bad. Starve your govenment to death, and then live in a land run by corporate power. Shareholders don't care about human rights. Governments are the only form of "checks and ballances" strong enough to stand up to corporations. Kill governments, and you kill your "inalienable" rights.