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G8 Summit Aims To Kill International Piracy
arcticstoat writes "Next week, the G8 summit will discuss proposals for new international piracy laws, which include border controls and cooperation from ISPs to identify pirates. The laws will also prevent ISPs from being liable for copyright infringement. If the G8 summit were to agree on these measures and enforce them through international cooperation, could they really cut down piracy, or would they be impractical to enforce?"
The parent post neglected to clarify the reference.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster#Pirates_and_global_warming
For those who believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Pirates are considered divine beings and the decrease in the number of pirates in the word (acording to followers of the FSM) id the true cause of global warming. Ergo, this can be seen as religious persecution!
This, of course, is a religious view which I will neither refute nor defend in this forum.
Something that causes the loss of actual lives and goods. But nope the lords of IP must be served.
http://www.voanews.com/uspolicy/2008-05-15-voa5.cfm
"The United States is very concerned about the increasing number of acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea, especially off the Somali coast," according to the U.S. Department of State. Piracy and armed robbery have disrupted trade in east Africa and threatened the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the Somali people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy
Well, from the G8 viewpoint, you are missing the bigger picture. By keeping "the masses" entertained *and* making them pay through the nose for that entertainment, "the masses* could not possibly have the time or wherewithal to do something effective to counter the outright wholesale removal and denial of their rights. So, from the G8 point of view, all of this will help keep society stable running as the G8 intends.
Do a little background reading, please.
The G8 is focused on economic activity, so discussion of the wars is pretty much right out.
Inflation is not a global problem, so why should countries not having inflation problems make it a primary matter on the agenda?
The agenda for the summit is defined by the host country (whose representative is the president for the year).
Also note that global climate change is being addressed by the G8+5, and was a major topic last year.
Finally, the G8 is not meeting for a week just to discuss IP and piracy. There are many other items on the agenda.
You should proceed to get your panties unbunched, and then bother to find out what the complete agenda is.
I agree that there are items of far bigger concern, but you should note that the G8 summit typically focuses on economic issues, not on things like war or violent crime -- though they are often linked to economics.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
People will eventually decide that copyright infringement isn't worth the likelihood and cost of getting caught, or there will be a revolution.
There WILL be a revolution. I guarantee it. Darknets, Encryption everywhere, media erasable with the click of a button, boycotts, cheaper end-to-end privacy services... maybe the govts are idiots, but most IT companies realize there's a huge business opportunity for this. And people will use it. Sooner or later, encryption will beat intelligence agencies and then they'll be forced to either reverse their decisions or to become a totalitarian police state.
The US govt needs to be careful where it steps - they might release a monster they're unable to contain.
And the RIAA and MPAA will die anyway.
You do realize that Treason in america is a specifically defined offense and there isn't anything that G8 members are doing that would meet that definition. It would also take a constitutional amendment to redefine Treason to include their actions that you find offensive.
That being said, I think you will carry more legitimacy and perhaps convincing weight if you can show a real criminal statute that was actually broke that the rest of Americans could believe was broke. You may be correct in that they are bad people (even though they are mostly country leaders at this level) but people who are in the know will likely ignore your comments as another ignorant and mislead person who it disgruntled. This is important because if you ever expect something substantive to be done, it is the people in the know who will have to do it.
<PEDANTIC>
Polonium (Po), not Plutonium (Pu).
</PEDANTIC>
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
You don't seem to particularly understand the importance of nations like Italy and France. As with Britain they're nations with extremely long histories that leave them to this day with a footing in many parts of the world. Their influence is incredibly strong internationally and it's this influence that keeps them strong economically, they're nations that simply wont sink in power because there's always nations willing to support them, trade with them and hold them up, often because of strong historical ties.
France particularly is strong in many other ways also, it's a member of the UN security council for one, has a lot of sway in the EU as does Italy- the EU is by far the worlds largest economy by GDP and many other measures.
These just aren't nations that are irrelevant, nor will they likely ever will be for decades or probably even centuries to come. I'm not saying this as a European with some arrogant feeling of self-importance (in fact, I'm British so I'm actually legally obliged to hate the French anyway ;)) but because these nations have so much power over international organisations and systems. They have the power to persuade the UN to push sanctions upon nations that dare consider trying to move away from the laws these nations produce for example and hence there's little that can topple them. Hell, a sizeable portion of the world depends on France and Italy for their defence, sure they could source equipment elsewhere but it'd take years and in the meantime they'd have zero support or ammo for their existing hardware.
It's probably worth also noting that France and Britain have been working to get China, India, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa in on the act for a little while now too, so as with most organisations irrelevance isn't relevant when change is possible as it is with the G8. China has been in on the G8 meets for a few years now anyway, there are only a few issues covered by the G8 from which it's excluded.
I see your point, but I think there are a couple things that might make you question the logic.
One is that IP is not standalone; that is, you can't look only at the gains and losses re: IP wrt international trade. If a country violates a trade treaty with another country, pretty much all trade treaties with the respective country are void (to the extent of the damage caused by the first violation). See Antigua vs US, WTO decision made in 2007. Unfair trade practices re: gambling by the US means that Antigua can seek redress by violating their trade treaties with the US (such as their IP recognition treaty).
Second is that individual organisations (businesses, etc) can easily be negatively affected by decisions that seem to make sense for the economy. It is hard to say whether France, for instance, would take action re: IP that would effectively kill certain industries, in exchange for free access to US IP. This is especially important because if France-US IP relations deteriorate, anyone wanting French IP will simply buy it from US companies for much cheaper.
The idea is to increase the size of the pie -- make sure IP is honored everywhere, so everyone can partake (hopefully profitably).
As for import/export being zero-sum, that is false. If it were zero-sum, we wouldn't have nearly so much currency fluctuation. Valuation of currency is not fixed. E.G. the importer of a product may value the product at $x USD, while the exporter may value it at $y USD... and in their native currencies, the amounts may be different once again.
No trade is zero-sum; this includes import-export balances.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
The G8 used to consist of the 8 largest economies in the world. Now it is mostly just a group of good-old-boys who wish they were still relevant on the world economic stage.
Members of the G8: US, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Canada, Russia.
Respective ranks in world GDP: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11. Total GDP: two thirds of the world.
Some has-beens.
Sarkozy's wife is a singer, songwriter and model.
Any questions remaining?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.