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U.S. Puts 12 Nations On Watch For Piracy
ColinPL writes with a link to an AP article about a public scolding the US has given China, Russia, and several other nations. Failure to 'sufficiently protect' American copyrights is the cause of the Bush administration's ire, and has resulted in these countries showing up on a 'priority watch list' that could eventually lead to economic sanctions. "In addition to Russia and China, the 10 countries placed on the priority watch list were Argentina, Chile, Egypt, India,
Israel, Lebanon, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and Venezuela. In elevating Thailand to the priority watch list, the administration said it was concerned by a range of issues including a 'deteriorating protection for patents and copyrights.' Thailand is currently in a dispute with international drug companies including Abbott Laboratories of the United States over the cost of drugs to fight AIDS and other diseases. The Thai government in January issued compulsory licenses allowing the use of much cheaper generic versions of two leading drugs in Thailand."
The US doesn't make anything the world wants except for software and entertainment and weaponry...hmm...where have I heard this before?
Anyway, Bush knows our economy is shit even though he lies and says otherwise. It's propped up by a circle-jerk of 'service providing' that people here can't really afford. The only real revenue stream is selling copywritten content.
It's all about the dollars....just like occupying Iraq.
It's a sad time to be a citizen of the USA, but we will get these scumbags out and try to get lesser scumbags who won't be quite as obnoxious and damaging to our ideals.
Even the most corrupt tax-and-spend liberal couldn't piss away over a trillion dollars on abject failure in the space of 7 years.
Blar.
Forgive me for confusing my smelly third world countries. Touche.
Piracy is tolerated only when we have what they want. When they have something that we want, and we copy it, they go fuckin' nuts (to quote Serial Mom).
For example, I'd be interested in getting a Chinese Optical Character Reader and English translator program combo. Then I could compare what the people in Singapore are actually saying about the Americans when they assume that the Caucs can't read what they say. [This would have been more fun about twenty years ago because now the Singaporians are too busy for creative bigotry]
I'm sure that such a program would cost thousands of dollars, though. I would have absolutely no intention of even considering paying for it. I just would like to have it. I would have the same amount of reservation about copying it that the Asians had about copying American technology and software back in the 1960s and 1970s, that is, absolutely none at all.
In fact, I would even go so far as to claim that I have a right to copy it since we as Americans looked the other way when the Asians copied our stuff back when they were poor. Our allowing them to do so was an investment, a long-term investment, and our copying a Chinese-English OCR program is but a return on this investment. They should be happy in the interest that we are showing in their culture and our willingness to allow the light of 3000 years of Chinese civilization to dimly shine upon our barbaric souls. It is even possible that we might actually learn something from all of their experience.
But no, if you copy an expensive program that they developed, for themselves, for their sale and profit, they go fuckin' nuts (again quoting John Water's Serial Mom, great job there, Ms. Turner). 'You are climinal asshore: you are theef' you will be told. Fingers pointing, eyes glaring, turn and spit on the ground, look around for a policeman to have you arrested, dipping into the purse to find the cellphone to call the authorities to have you arrested and deported. Caucausian scum barbarian.
Hey, I love you guys, but, please, grow up. There's no such thing as intellectual property. Never has been, never will be. It's just another junk meme like racism, communism, and religion destined for the junk heap of history (to coin a phrase).