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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
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.
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.