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13 Countries On US "Priority Watch List" For Copyright Piracy
hapworth writes "The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) has submitted a report on the top 40 countries guilty of piracy to The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), which is preparing for its annual 'Special 301' report. This report describes the adequacy and effectiveness of US trading partners' protection of intellectual property rights. Among the 40 countries suggested by the IIPA for the watch list, 13 were recommended for placement on the USTR's 'Priority Watch List.' These countries include Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Russia, Costa Rica, the Philippines, Spain, Ukraine, and Vietnam. While previous reports have focused on physical piracy, this year's emphasizes cracking down on online piracy."
As a Canadian, do you have any idea why Canadia ended up on the list? The rest I can understand, with the possible exception of Spain, but Canada? Really?
Canada is always included on their list of naughty countries. It's some trade association though, so take any of their claims with a mountain of salt.
As usual, Michael Geist's site is refreshingly informative.
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3920/135/ "U.S. List Unfairly Tarnishes Canada's Digital Reputation" from 2009.
It is because we have legislation in the works (Bill C-32) that the US government, er music and film industry, thinks will help give them more money. So far, it is called the "DMCA of Canada" for good reason. i.e. restriction of breaking digital locks for any reason, and although the Conservative government says it is willing to make modifications based on the input of Canadians, basically it has ignored the input given last summer by thousands of Canadians through "Copyright Consultations" and is pushing ahead. The Liberals (not a swear word here) have proposed modifications such as an Internet levy to pay for artists, however almost none of the money that the CD-levy has actually not gone to the artists themselves. Here is the Bill, and not is is a lot longer and complex that the original law that we have to today. Our Heritage Minister branded us as "not wanting to modernize Canadian law", because most Canadians who know about the law know that it does not need changing. In fact parts of the Canadian government seem to go lock-step with their US counterparts, with both Prentice (former Industry Minister) and Clement (current Industry Minister) being sent to the US to meet with US government officials about this law as one of the first things they have done when they took office. So to the US who is helping to introduce a law that most Canadians feel is unnecessary: "Go shove it".
Society use your Sciences
It's not about that, and here goes my usual rant again:
Companies DON'T GIVE A FUCK about countries like mine. We don't have itunes, netflix, lala, pandora, hulu, xbox live, nothing. We also don't have game stores (microsoft doesn't import the xbox 360 or games, so even if you have one, you can't buy games simply because there are no places to buy them). Blockbuster closed too.
Sony does import the PS3 (at USD 800) and games (2-3x the US price).
So in one hand we have a middle class, with money, willing to buy things. In the other hand we have 60-something investors which think we still live in trees and there is no market for their products, and decide just not to sell them, or a very small "luxury" market, like the PS3.
If companies one day decided to start selling their stuff, for a reasonable price, I know people will buy them. How do I know this? Because I have a comic book shop. My customers are mostly teenagers who want the latest Naruto episode, and can get it from free from the internet just hours after it's been released in Japan. We have a local Naruto edition (in paper I mean) and guess what? It sells out.
My dad's friend works at a BMW dealership. They sold all BMWs last year. There is even a waiting list!
I live in a city of 400,000 and I know there are at least 10 dvd rental stores, and even 1 bluray-only rental store. So much for poor people living in trees.
You know what the problem with piracy really is? People selling pirated movies in the street. That's the real problem, but movie studios can't do anything about them, because our government won't. And, you see, people selling pirated movies in the street or not, there are dvd rental stores doing just fine.