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U.S. Copyright Report More Rhetoric Than Reality
CanuckGamer writes "Michael Geist has up a great article debunking the U.S. 'Special 301' report that is set to be released this week. The annual copyright report criticizes dozens of countries on their copyright practices, yet Geist notes that the policies are subject to growing criticism within the U.S. and that few countries are actually listening since most ignore the recommendations. 'While the report will generate media headlines and cries for immediate action from Industry Minister Maxime Bernier and Canadian Heritage Minister Bev Oda, the reality is that Canada's record on intellectual property protection meets international standards. Moreover, differences between the U.S. and Canadian economies - the U.S. is a major exporter of cultural products and has therefore unsurprisingly made stronger copyright protection a core element of its trade strategy while Canada is a net importer of cultural products with a billion dollar annual culture deficit - means that U.S.-backed reforms may do more harm than good.'"
"Debunking" means that you've demonstrated that something is false, not that you think it should be disregarded.
But they have Celine Dion!
Is that with or without William Shatner?
Without him American forces would be having an easy time of it in Iraq, and we would prepare to invade Canada. But of course the United States has never invaded a nation to install a pro-American dictator because they don't like the democratically elected government's policies.
Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further development.-- Frontinus, 1st cent. AD
http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_ publications/company_level_imports/current/import. html
Now go piss off.
I think the word you are looking for is "entertainment". Unless you forgot the quotes.
Canadians should be allowed to steal as much IP as anyone else..
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
Good thing the headline isn't slanted or editorialized. Oh wait....
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
Life of the author plus 70 years. For corporate works, 95 years from date of publication or 120 tears from date of creation, whichever is shorter. Of course, most authors are incorporated and the corporation holds the copyright. The whole world needs to use this formula - because Sony and Disney and George Lucas aren't making enough money.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
the U.S. is a major exporter of cultural crap.
There, fixed it for you!
Geist raises interesting points, as always. But for a more in-depth look into the sordid history of the Special 301 report, please read Peter Drahos and John Braithwaite's Information Feudalism, if you haven't yet. It's kinda like The Empire Strikes Back, with intellectual property lawyers and the content industry as the Empire, and not only one, but 50+ Darth Vaders.
They just keep acting like they are a whole other country!
Glyn Moody from Linux Journal:
the U.S. is a major exporter of crap.
there, i fixed it for you :-)
sarcasm:
-noun
1. harsh or bitter derision or irony.
...that US policymakers don't listen to some guy who serves as an advisor to the Canadian government.
Oh, never mind. We don't even listen to our own scientists who repeatedly tell us about global warming.
blah blah blah
Most countries aside of the US and possibly UK, India and Japan, are net importers of content. So I kinda wonder why the heck they all jump that bandwaggon so readily. Stronger IP laws actually hurt most countries' economies.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Just out of curiosity, what business do the USA have criticising other country's copyright laws, anyway? If Canada - for example - told the USA that their copyright laws are inadequate and need to be overhauled, they'd quickly be told to mind their own damn business and not meddle in other countries' internal affairs - and rightfully so, too. Why do the USA think that they have the right to do the same thing?
Or, more specifically: why don't the PEOPLE see anything wrong with it when the administration(s) (both past and present) think they have the right to meddle in the affairs of other countries?
butter the donkey
I'm guessing that Canada hopes so.
If one regards the word in its general sense, without connotative value, cultural is just what is required here. In particular, US cultural production is rarely entertaining, but the Knight Rider is a *cultural* product. If it were identified as such more often, the market for it might shrink a bit. Certainly, fewer people would be inclined to allow their professional association with it. As it is, the work is written off as product analogous to the way current political discourse is written off as spin.
illegitimii non ingravare
who else stopped reading the summary out of disinterest upon reaching the first instance of "Canada"?
the trouble is nobody thinks its worth paying for
what is it that marketing says? oh yeah
"something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it"
in the case of US media thats zilch
remember everyday thousands of ordinary (not geeks) people discover P2P so its not going to get better
, i even know quite a few large company directors (and old ladies) that dont bat an eyelid at Bittorrent and its cousins (amusing to see their bookmark collection where they can get all that culture for $0)
[W]hy don't the PEOPLE see anything wrong with it when the administration(s) (both past and present) think they have the right to meddle in the affairs of other countries?
Um. The very idea of *other countries* finds itself through the work of socio-political discourse. If there were not other countries, our actions would not be meddling but interaction. The power grants your borders in order to arrogate the right to broach them.
But the question is moot. Lenin's anticipated withering of the state has already begun, but without the crypto-Marxist coloring. It is not recognized yet for what it is. We see the technology enabling the same but moreso, but the comms has already unleashed the forces that lie in wait for the nation state, the multinational corporation and the global hegemony of American bad taste.
illegitimii non ingravare
I think we must work hard to roll back this term "IP". .
But we won't. We each want a chance to cash in before the tragedy. Particularly if it is down to geeks to intervene in the use of these terms, we will resist. Every programmer has a *big idea* and the desire to capitalize is not regarded as crass or dishonest, but a civic duty. If ideas aren't property, how can knowledge be valuable?
Seductive, easy and wrong answers to that question abound.
illegitimii non ingravare
The headline is a statement of fact. Unless one regards rhetoric as inherently perjorative ( a pernicious contemporary usage, mind) to say that the USTR report on IP is language intended to pursuade is hardly slant or editorializing. The Bush political appointee is merely doing his job.
illegitimii non ingravare
Capitalism posits one form of value: perceived value.
Marxism posits two forms of value: exchange value and use value.
The human organism exists in a matrix of overlapping values that, by the tacit statement of their poets, cannot be reduced to a unary or binary formalism.
illegitimii non ingravare
It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of TJ Hooker to this issue. Close analysis will reveal that most of American cultural export is the functional equivalent of pornography: intended neither to advance an idea nor stimulate an affect, but to satisfy an appetite.
Sane valuation would reveal that after Gordon Lightfoot, Canada banked a net surplus with America which would stand it in good stead for years to come.
illegitimii non ingravare
Intellectual Property trade sector has links to the past 301 special reports. Like 2006 Special 301, 2005 Special 301, 2004 Special 301, 2003 Special 301, and 2002 Special 301 .
The 2007 report is not out yet.
Moved Permanently Use http://copyright.us/
Programmers in mirror are brighter than they appear
. . . but conspiracies of interest.
And it's *possessive*.
illegitimii non ingravare
. . . knowledge is often more valuable the more it is shared . .
If it's not monetized, its not value; not in the liberal capitalist democracies. They'll be crying all the way to the bank.
Values (as opposed to value) are the prerogative of those who can afford to exercise them.
illegitimii non ingravare
Does this make the U.S the ass and Canada the toilet?
Taking physical objects from you is theft. Duplicating data to which I have already been granted access is not theft.
The US Supreme court agrees with me on that one, incidentally.
Dirt is property. Information is not. Unfortunately getting any institution (courts, businesses, or whatever) to agree on that one has been difficult. It is still true though.
Stop shitting in our brains!
Actually one of the top TV shows for me is ReGenesis. It gets silly with the fake science almost every time, but it is not as silly as XFiles with fake science (oh, no, Scully put science on a religious pedestal yet one more time with her "You don't question the science, goddammit!")
But really, the best shows that I know are ReGenesis, Dexter, Futurama, Fraser, Family Guy, Married with Children, XFiles, Seinfeld, Simpsons, Home Improvement and The Outer Limits not necessarily in that order. Of-course all of them, except ReGenesis are US shows. But then again, we have 1/10 of the population.
You can't handle the truth.
I see anti-Canadianism is alive and well in the US of A.
Time they wake up to that. One job, one salery.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating