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Backlash Builds Against US Copyright Blacklist
An anonymous reader writes "The release last week of the US copyright blacklist is beginning to generate a backlash in countries around the world. Reports from Canada, Europe, and Asia all note that the US claims are very suspect and that the report is little more than an attempt to bully dozens of countries into following the US DMCA model."
The USA bully another country? Never..
What will they do if we dont adopt the evil DMCA? Steal our lunch money? With the 10Trillion+ deficit over there you'll need it.
Nothing to see here, folks. Move right along.
Seriously, there's nothing here. Countries will always try to vilify other countries in order to satisfy their own interests. The Axis of Evil is a pretty good example.
Viable Slashdot alternatives: https://pipedot.org/ and http://soylentnews.org/
I do not think there is anything surprising about that conclusion that the entire thing is an attempt to force other countries into "compliance"
Hm, I wonder why other countries don't want a DMCA style law, could it be that the DMCA is effectively killing the US software/hardware market? Why do we see so many (innovative and clone) products from China? Because they don't have the stupidities of US patent and copyright laws. Imagine the marketplace being flooded with choices, of phones that can do as much as the iPhone, yet cost hundreds less (unlocked of course) and including features not currently found in most phones (open hardware*, dual-sim slots, etc). The USA could easily be first in the technology market, if our lawmakers weren't in the pocketbooks of the RIAA, MPAA and other backwards lobby groups.
*Well, perhaps open hardware is the wrong word, but basically hardware that if off-the-shelf, contains very little proprietary components and can be easily studied/modified.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
We seem to continue operating under the false assumption that we are still the biggest dog on the block.
After effectively skewering the financial system, starting a couple wars, and heaven knows what else we still expect to be taken so seriously.
I recognize we still have the most bombs, but when or country acts like a petulant child it's still tough to be serious about it. It isn't leading the world, it isn't change. It's thinly veiled fascism.
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I'm waiting for the first ground war based solely on copyright. And if you don't think that's going to happen someday, then you have no idea how corporate America rules the politicians...
I'm waiting for the first ground war based solely on copyright.
You mean like Operation Fastlink and other raids on the warez scene?
Meet the new boss......... Same as the old boss.
If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
One of the reasons these countries are developing a good IT infrastructure is due to software piracy. Any student with the slightest interest can pick up any software whatsoever, be it Tally, Photoshop or MS Excel, and learn by themselves. And businesses obviously have cost benefits in using something for free. Why would a developing economy hamper it's businesses by forcing them to use original software? It might help the bigger companies, the ones who make the software, but will affect the small and medium sized businesses negatively. And in the end, the software companies that do get the benefit are American, and not local businesses.
According to the original article, this is a routine annual report listing who we are happy with or unhappy with concerning copyright and such. There's also no mention of DMCA. Evidently, countries come and go off these lists all the time. It's just a way for the USA to communicate what it does and doesn't like about other countries behavior. It's called diplomacy. How does anyone get "blacklist" out of this?
By the way, it mentions that North Korea was taken off the bad-boy list. Does anyone really think North Korea instituted a DMCA-like law?
Artists definitely deserve their dues when it comes to creative artwork... but when their work generates revenue for 70+ years after it's creation for a corporation and not the artist, there's something seriously wrong.
Finally an article on Slashdot where a librarian can weigh in with professional knowledge. I don't think enough people realize the mini-war going on in the publishing industry and how those vulture are trying to bleed everyone dry. I am a college librarian at a major university in Manhattan. Today I had to attend a meeting about copyright compliance. It seems that publishers are no longer satisfied with overcharging for every textbook and then overcharging again when a "new" edition (almost identical version except for a new graph or intro) comes out the very next year. Now they would like us to purchase a new copyright compliance software that will allow them to monitor (through the middlemen in the software company) how many times we upload any part of any published material and how many times the students access each pdf or document, and then charge us for every use even thought we have already purchased the book and been using that same material for years. Its nuts. Fair use and common long standing practices by many academic libraries used to mean to us that we could put up 10% of any published document and not have to worry. And i know the diligent followers of Slashdot are not surprised but this type of thuggish shake down. But its almost criminal the nerve these jackals have to try to penny pinch and financially gouge the very universities that are their life blood in this struggling market. Very rarely does a librarian threaten to burn books, but it would be a better use of em that paying those publishing bastards another cent.
Test me and I will chronicle your pain - The Archivist (Diablo 3)
Even if the artist was still benefiting, 70+ years is absurd. The whole reason copyright and patents were originally conceived was to encourage new works and promote innovation.
Now, thanks to companies like Disney (the absolute worst when it comes to this issue) lobbying to protect their archives, we have the exact opposite happening... copyright and patents are now stifling innovation and preventing new works and inventions.
I'm all for being rewarded for your intellectual creations, but if you wrote one song 30 years ago, is it in the best interest of society for the government to continue to protect that for you? No. The interest of society is better served if you are encouraged to create new works and let others build upon your foundation. That was the whole idea.
It's all been horribly perverted, and is only going to get worse because ultimately, the people that benefit have more money and are more highly motivated than the general public.
I'd say the ideal target should be in the neighborhood of 10-20 years (tops) and then either create something new or find a different job.
This would not have worked for one simple reason -- there were only TWO BOMBS AVAILABLE. It would be many months before more would have been made. There were none to spare on "warning shots".
It could be argued that the second bomb should have been deferred to see if the first one alone would have the desired effect (surrender), but the second bomb wasn't so much to break Japan as it was to intimidate the USSR. That's the real crime -- that Japan had to pay for a pissing match between two allies.
Mal-2
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
Yes, because culture didn't exist before copyright and Artists don't earn money from live performances.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
The Consumers International IP Watch List is a counter-USTR 301 Report, released simultaneously, which lists countries according to our friendly their IP laws are to consumers, rather than how strongly those laws benefit creators. On this list, interestingly, the US is listed in the same company as China and India, countries which it strongly criticises in its 301 Report! The worst of all countries in the Consumers International list is the United Kingdom.
Isn't it funny that the United States government has gone after so many corporations, accusing them of abusing positions of dominance in markets to create monopolies, when in fact that same government - and Americans collectively as a nation - have been guilty of the exact same monopolistic behaviors, perpetrated against the rest of the world? The United States has been abusing its economic position to "export" its economic values and system for many decades. In fact, that exportation is more coercive and extortionate than it is consensual: "you style your economy and trade laws after our own, to protect OUR interests and desire to profit from YOUR citizens, or we won't do business with you".
Oh, and THEN there was the Iraq War(s).
It's about time the United States Government itself was indicted on anti-trust charges. It has violated all the "trust" the American people have ever placed in it. Actions speak louder than words: this is an industrialist-dominated capitalist economy first and a democracy a distant second. Those decades of coercion, the Iraq War, and now this unsurprising revelation about yet more economic browbeating. So-called intellectual property law is one of the key aspects of that monopolistic behavior.
Forget about impeaching just Bush and Cheney... we need to impeach the entire American government, retroactively back to at least the early 1900s, and the entire American people for quietly condoning this and turning a blind eye. This is an entire nation guilty of monopolistic behavior, and using both the might of our economy AND our military to enable it.