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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."
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.
Sounds like it's time to build the B Ark. We just have to make sure that we sanitize our own telephones.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
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.
What you're seeing here really is more of a disconnect between the Government and the people it is suppose to represent. The american government at this point is pretty much entirely owned by various corporations and private interests that don't represent the thoughts and will of the american people.
I'm pretty fed up with it and I want things to change but I really don't see what I can do, the FBI is busy trying to turn people into terrorists who are unhappy with the way the government is representing them. It doesn't matter if I vote for the right or left any politician I vote for is owned by someone, and most if not all the third party candidates are dubious or likely to be subverted the moment they become any more than 'third party' and or get seen as a threat to the status quo.
The point is that when people are listening to CDs or MP3s, they're not JUST listening to them. They're cleaning, playing video games, exercising, driving, or any one of a multitude of activities which don't require 100% of your ears. Hell, I've listened to music while working at a call center before. 99% of situations in which people would have music are not situations in which live music is applicable.
tl;dr: You trollin'.
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.
I live in Asia. Our entertainment is going out with people and socializing.
That sounds too much like socialism for the US.
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Well, while you're ignoring it, the politicians will be citing it for why we more and tougher IP legislation, both at home and abroad.
You may ignore it if you wish, but do so at your peril. This report is a window into the minds of the politicians and bureaucrats who run our country and think they run the world. We ought to be using this to our advantage, to stir up pushback from other countries and put the bastards on the defensive. They're trying to bully the rest of the world into paying up--the only way to deal with a bully is to stand up for yourself and fight back.
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
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.
Claiming one country should forgo their culture because you said yours is better is not a very good argument. Maybe some people dont want to go out and prefer to stay home and listen to music, is there is something wrong with that? while i am not bashing your culture, i think its great if you have more community based entertainment...but USA is different for a variety of reasons and it would be easier to change the record companys then it would be to change an entire culture.
Its funny, most the time its Americans are being accused of the very same thing your doing.
>>>performing a cover of a pop song for free at a concert is not an issue here either.
Yeah actually it is.
Public performance of copyrighted works, even legal recordings, is forbidden in the U.S. and the RIAA expects other countries to have similar laws.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
I'm pretty fed up with it and I want things to change but I really don't see what I can do
Organize.
There are probably people near you who are organizing political events that work for real people rather than the powers that be. Seek them out.
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.
| What you're seeing here really is more of a disconnect between the Government and the people it is suppose to represent
Umm, you and I aren't the American people. We' don't have the money. We don't count. Real American people number less than 1 million, out of the 300 million inhabitants of America. The rest of us live in 'Murica, are a nuisance to real Americans, and are expendable.
I'm pretty fed up with it and I want things to change but I really don't see what I can do, the FBI is busy trying to turn people into terrorists who are unhappy with the way the government is representing them. It doesn't matter if I vote for the right or left any politician I vote for is owned by someone, and most if not all the third party candidates are dubious or likely to be subverted the moment they become any more than 'third party' and or get seen as a threat to the status quo.
My favored solution is for grassroots organizations to stop banging their heads against the wall on issues that aren't going anywhere under the current system and focus on electoral reforms. 1) End political redistricting. 2) Enact some sort of acceptability voting (e.g. instant run-off), starting with local and state elections and building support for federal elections. 3) Enact campaign finance reforms of some sort (the biggest and most challenging issue, though one in which there are many avenues along which to make advances).
I could add more (like somehow modifying the primary system, rotating which states vote first in presidential primaries, media ownership reforms), but those 3 I think deal with the bulk of what's preventing progress in terms of true representation of the people and resistance to corporate special interests. (1) reduces individual power consolidation and polarization, (2) reduces party power consolidation, polarization, and provides an opportunity for the public to express their preferences in more dimensions (this might make it easier to push back against the advancing security state), and (3) reduces the power of wealthy donors and corporations (who aren't people), or in the case of greater transparency at least allows us to know who is spending how much on what/whom.
Indeed, I'm normally the first in line to accuse Americans of doing this but this guy is just being an asshole.
He's also wrong. I also live in Asia and plenty of people pirate, play video games, and do all the things that the west does. GP is talking complete nonsense.
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.
All good points.
> 3) Enact campaign finance reforms of some sort (the biggest and most challenging issue, though one in which there are many avenues along which to make advances).
Spot on. Money needs to be *completely* removed from politics as a factor otherwise you end up with a death-spiral of who can outbid buying off the public.
The sensible way would to pool ALL donations, and split the balance every month.
I would add the other political reform would be is get rid of the parties, and focus on the *issues*, not this juvenile mudslinging crap that does nothing.
The root problem is most Americans don't give a shit, to actually DO anything to change the existing system.
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The best part apart of the US is Capitalism. The worst part about the US, ironically, is also Capitalism.
The scenario, as put forth by the GP, is an issue for ASCAP and/or its international equivalents, not RIAA here.
And ASCAP is every bit as evil as the RIAA, if not more so. Got a jukebox in your bar? You have to pay ASCAP. Live band? Pay ASCAP. Your band only plays original or public domain works? Pay ASCAP anyway.
A bar owner here in Springfield, who hired bands that played only bluegrass and folk music (public domain) was taken to court by ASCAP for the fees they said he owed for the public domain music that was performed in his bar. He went bankrupt fighting the suit and his bar is now closed.
ASCAP is pure evil.
Free Martian Whores!
Look, look! These wannabees who live in a different place like music that I don't like!
cpu6502 blathered:
Public performance of copyrighted works, even legal recordings, is forbidden in the U.S. and the RIAA expects other countries to have similar laws.
Absolutely, totally, completely, and utterly incorrect.
Covering another songwriter's material is perfectly legal, whether you record it or perform it live - as long as the orginal recording has been in release for at least one calendar year. HOWEVER, if you cover a song, you MUST pay what's known as a "mechanical license fee" of 9.10 cents per copy for songs 5 minutes or less or 1.75 cents per minute or fraction thereof, per copy for songs over 5 minutes to the author or authors of the material (fee schedule courtesy Harry Fox Agency). That royalty rate is set by Congress, per international treaties.
I understand that talking out your ass is a favorite /. exercise, but ... really?
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