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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.
Is that with or without William Shatner?
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.
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
Using the term "cultural deficit" doesn't seem quite right -- it implies that the USA has a cultural surplus.
(IANAL)
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!
Heck it assumes the US has a culture. //takes toungue out of cheek
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
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
Of course not anymore since they gotta export every bit of it.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
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
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
Moved Permanently Use http://copyright.us/
Programmers in mirror are brighter than they appear