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.'"

Comments

Re:What Canada should say to the US

[dykofone]

I'm an American, but it's this oil thing that has made me actually consider moving to Canada:

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0872964.html

Canada has the world's second largest oil reserve after Saudi Arabia. Why are they importing instead of exporting right now? Because oil is currently dirt cheap, compared to what it will be in 20 years. Canada is just sitting back, watching the world tear itself apart over oil, all the while not sharing what they have.

Watch it, Canada will be the new superpower in a couple decades. That, or we'll just invade them.

Copyright isn't enough to satisfy their greed

[Burz]

...so they attempting to turn categories like copyright and patents into property. Politicians jump on this bandwagon because of 1) corporate patronage, and 2) its one of the few remaining large exports for the USA and more important as a trade negotiating tool as a result.

Glyn Moody from Linux Journal:

Intellectual Property does not exist

If people became aware of this simple fact - that intellectual property does not exist - I think it might be easier to persuade even politicians to do something about this crazy state of affairs.

The term "IP" is a very clever trick played by those who indeed want to own ideas. I always use the phrase "intellectual monopoly" instead, because that's what copyright and patents are: they are monopolies granted by the government for a limited time to encourage innovation and creativity. If, instead of talking about extending "property" rights for "IP", you phrase it as extending a monopoly right, that doesn't sound so good, because it's clear that something is being taken away from everyone.

I think we must work hard to roll back this term "IP", because every time we use it we reinforce the misconception that ideas can be owned. As soon as you get people to think in terms of monopolies, they become far less impressed by big business's demands for more "IP" protection, and the case for copyright and patents is correspondingly weaker.

kultur

[rodentia]

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.

Re:What Canada should say to the US

[TubeSteak]

Why are they importing instead of exporting right now? Because oil is currently dirt cheap, compared to what it will be in 20 years. Canada is just sitting back, watching the world tear itself apart over oil, all the while not sharing what they have.

If you knew anything about the oil business, you'd know that Canada's oil reserves are locked up in tar sands and under peat bogs. Oil prices have to stay over $60/barrel for Canada to remain a viable source of oil.

Watch it, Canada will be the new superpower in a couple decades. That, or we'll just invade them.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1614 000,00.html
Estimates of Iraq's oil reserves have recently been doubled.
The US already invaded them, so I think Canada is safe for a while yet.

but we won't

[rodentia]

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.