Slashdot Mirror
Stop Being Poor: U.S. Piracy Watch List Hits a New Low With 2012 Report
An anonymous reader writes "The U.S. Trade Representative released its annual Special 301 Report yesterday, unsurprisingly including Canada on the Priority Watch list. While inclusion on the list is designed to generate embarrassment on target countries, Michael Geist explains why this year's report should elicit outrage. Not only is the report lacking in objective analysis, it targets some of the world's poorest countries with no evidence of legal inadequacies and picks fights with any country that dare adopt a contrary view on intellectual property issues."
I live in Asia. Our entertainment is going out with people and socializing. We like that. Live music is better than listening to some stupid pop artists from your cd's. Bands at the restaurants and bars occasionally play covers of those over here, but you are a failing country that is both anti-social and has no understanding of what products are actually worth to pay for. You are fighting a fight that you cannot win.
Canada should be embarrassed. I mean, they have some of the best privacy laws of any country.
On a related note, as an American, could I borrow some?
You're right, CDs are crappy. That's why I always bring a live band with me when I drive to and from work.
Michael Geist explains why this year's report should elicit outrage. Not only is the report lacking in objective analysis, it targets some of the world's poorest countries with no evidence of legal inadequacies and picks fights with any country that dare adopt a contrary view on intellectual property issues.
So we can easily ignore that report.
-- Cheers!
Yeah, so all of you impoverished nations... your people might be poor and starving, but don't even think for a minute about feeding them. Take that money you would have fed hungry children with and step up your IP policing, because your laws are good, you are just wasting money you could use for more enforcement in all of the wrong places, like feeding your people.
From where I sit, this has been one of the greatest disappointments even staunch supporters like me have with Obama: his administration's continued support for the content industry at the expense of people in America and around the world.
Dan Aris
Fun. Free. Online. RPG. BattleMaster.
Democrats are concerned with civil liberties and the rights of the individual. We need change! Oh, wait...
we tried to conquer your worthless country twice before, but you finally gave us an excuse for a third time
I noticed China got 8 pages and then some on that report, but no other country even has a single page dedicated to it. Yet how much shit gets manufactured over there and then shipped out all over the world?
I don't know everything.
This is the best part:
Which basically means the people writing this report are well known shills, who are predisposed to write something which is in favor of what the content industry wants.
Glad to see these guys being told to bugger off if they don't have any facts. Far too much of American policy is dictated by lobbyists.
Constantly listening to the content industry in the US bleating that Canada is a horrible evil country of people who violate copyrights gets tedious.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
It's not about protecting anything but corporate profits.
For example, when copyright was 1st conceived, the concept was to protect that individual's right to contract for the legitimate use or the press and distribution in order to ensure that the publisher was paying the actual author. In America, Jefferson argued that copyright should be restricted to 1/2 the average lifespan of a human in order to preserve the incentive to create new works as well as protect future generations from undue power that would otherwise accumulate in the hands of 'owners' of creative works. (Which is exactly what has happened.)
Since then, corporations have found it convenient to buy proprietary works, contractually strangle authors and coerce (I mean lobby) legislation to extend the term of copyright to ridiculous lengths (in the U.S. it's life plus 70 years or 120 for anonymous works owned by Inc.) in order to further the monopolistic tendencies of business interests. This places corporate interests above those of the individual or society in general. (Thank Sonny Bono & Mickey Mouse)
This is but one example of the 'service' so-called anti-piracy laws provide.
The US has declared wars on drugs, terrorism, copyright violations, crackers, and a whole host of other things.
In doing so they've declared "war" on pretty much every nation in the world, including the very ones that they claim are friends and allies.
So what can we conclude?
The US is Enemy #1 to the world.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
I don't think we (as canadians) should be outraged. That's the wrong approach to this. We should be celebrating the fact that we have better rules than the americans.
Imagine some politicians came out with a report about how awful it is that blacks can vote in this long list of countries, or how abhorrent is is that women could vote in some places, or how some countries *still* haven't enacted prohibition, or how terrible it must be for people living in those countries that have government healthcare. If you on one of those lists you don't get outraged, you can use it as proof positive that your system is working, and those idiots that wrote the report are living in the wrong century. Which, as with this report, they are.
There's no point in trying to complain that some of their metrics are wrong or unfairly target the wrong groups. The whole concept is basically inverted, squabbling about the details gives the false impression that it can somehow be corrected with some tweaking of specifics.
Actually I'm pissed off because Spain got off the list :-(
The B-Ark idea was done centuries ago, however it was decided two were needed to get rid of all the undesirables. One was named Australia, the other America.
There they would die an agonizing dead, removed from all culture essential to any human. Who knew the dregs would adapt to do without culture?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
if you are not on special report 301 you need to figure out how to get on it. Make sure your citizens are protected from music and movie companies pressuring the US government to prop up their dying business model they refuse to change.
That the US government wants the world to adopt their kind of strong policies should not surprise anyone. The facts are that the US doesn't have a wealth of natural resources, nor do we have the kind of cheap labor that attracts manufacturing. In the long game, all we really have is the ability to innovate for which we certainly don't corner the market; therefore, without the rest of the world adopting similar stances on IP, the US cannot hope to retain it's economic advantage over other countries. The same is true of other developed nations with dwindling resources and expensive labor, and will come to be of poorer nations with few resources--though they haven't come to expect the type of lives we lead in the states.
I think there's a place for protecting intellectual and artistic expressions that exist in a tangible form, but it must reasonable, limited, and well-defined. People should be able to make their living by discovering new things, and by springing something novel and valuable into the world, but at the same time, doing so once should not guarantee lifetimes' of income for you, your children, and so on down the line, nor provide you with the means to prevent others from competing with or building upon your ideas.
Perhaps more correctly the unconstitutionally hijacked US government is Enemy #1 to the world. Average US "citizens" are more like Hitler's untermenschen... In 1984, Wall Street Journal's international editor, Jonathan Kwitney, documented another "Enemy#1" version effect of US policies in "Endless Enemies, the Making of an Unfriendly World."
Canada should patent the color blue, the letter "n", and the smell of waffles.. then put the US at the top of their piracy watchdog list.
Is there any legit place where you can purchase non-drm lossless albums using GNU/Linux?
I'm not defending the report at all. There is no reason why some of the countries listed show up. However, from that, it is a huge leap to assume that contries are simply on the list because they are poor. There probably is a high corrilation between poor contries and piracy. So, just maybe the list which names countries with high rates of piracy used some sort of metric that measured.... piracy without taking into account the economy of that country?
Really, the article was written more poorly than the average slashdot comment. I think it should have equal weight.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
So, fine, blame Guatemala.
Every single country on this list should introduce an initiative to encourage Free Software on every possible machine. This will guarantee "piracy" ends.
--
BMO http://goodbye-microsoft.com/
FUCK YOU.
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Piracy Warning
My favourite part of the referenced document:
"The United States remains concerned about the availability of rights of appeal in Canada’s administrative process for reviewing the regulatory approval of pharmaceutical products, as well as limitations in Canada’s trademark regime."
The US is concerned about our rights of appeal. That's awesome! American foreign policy at its finest.
I am not interested in articles about life extension advancements.
"America! Fuck you!"
I've been ranting with increasing frequency about the way the US's last export is being managed and supported.
Of all the things we have exported, the last on our list is "intellectual property" and with good reason. Everything else is a physical thing and can be controlled by putting it in a box and giving it to a second party only after payment is secured. But intangable property... imaginary property... intellectual priperty... whatever you want to call it, depends exclusively on the rule and enforcement of law. And the exports are going out before the law is there to protect/enforce/inflict it on other governments.
Looks to me like this situaiton wasn't well thought out. Seems to me that before we ran out of real exports, someone should have said "uh... what are we gonna sell now?" (I'm pretty sure lots of people did... just not the ones contributing the most to politicians.) And now here we are...
At the moment, it's kind of hard to imagine the US making war on other countries because of intellectual property... well maybe not... but in the case of the downed drone over Iran... makes me think we are just going to end up exporting MORE intellectual property into "enemy hands."
You can kiss this big white Canadian ass. Put us on whatever "list" you wish to, we will not be intimidated.
Number 1, for trying to impose american law on the world. That's the act of a school bully making people his bitch because he can beat them up. Number 2, for electing such bullies to be their leaders! I mean, why! I doubt this list would embarrass any country other than the USA, as it exposes the level of bigotry and blindness of their people.
Read this comment, then flamebait it to hell. Still not posting anon.
Starbucks, Harbuckle of Breath.
Stop Piracy pronto, or we'll level Toronto!
cpghost at Cordula's Web.
A US movie can do moderate or even poor box office domestically and the stu^H^H^Hcorporations don't care too much because they know they will make their money back and return a tidy profit in the overseas markets, especially in Asia.
The trouble with broad-brushing is that one tends to coat oneself in the process.
On the subject of entertainment, why exactly should we support an industry that provides stuff we don't really need? Actually stuff that we'd be better of without.
You're an artist in need of a few bob? Go on and perform and entertain like all the rest of us do. You're not that special. Don't expect some artificial, non-natural mechanism to be your source of everlasting income.
You have an urge to produce films and in need of multi-millions? Downsize buddy and keep your message clean and simple. Special effects are expensive and don't add anything to a story built up well.
Sure, I'm not completely fair towards educational authors. But as a society we should restrict support to parasites like music and film corporations. Considering huge sums delivered to your doorstep as a matter of fact is plain and simple a commie thing.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
Yes because we should all adopt sane laws that allow for multinational corporations to sue an 80 year old grandmother into oblivion because her grand kid downloaded the latest Britney Spears album. Because 2.8 Billion dollars is a just and fair punishment for 24 beautiful songs. Not to mention basically infinite copyright (its what? 125 years + life of owner now? That is until they lobby to make it even longer).
The whole thing is so insane it angers my blood. Every time I see a stupid bought and paid for politician trying to defend this garbage I just want to punch him in the face. It is just so against common sense, it boggles my mind how this is even an issue.
For shame if Canada buckles to US pressure.