U.S. Puts 12 Nations On Watch For Piracy

ColinPL writes with a link to an AP article about a public scolding the US has given China, Russia, and several other nations. Failure to 'sufficiently protect' American copyrights is the cause of the Bush administration's ire, and has resulted in these countries showing up on a 'priority watch list' that could eventually lead to economic sanctions. "In addition to Russia and China, the 10 countries placed on the priority watch list were Argentina, Chile, Egypt, India, Israel, Lebanon, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and Venezuela. In elevating Thailand to the priority watch list, the administration said it was concerned by a range of issues including a 'deteriorating protection for patents and copyrights.' Thailand is currently in a dispute with international drug companies including Abbott Laboratories of the United States over the cost of drugs to fight AIDS and other diseases. The Thai government in January issued compulsory licenses allowing the use of much cheaper generic versions of two leading drugs in Thailand."

Re:Let's be honest

[morgan_greywolf]

This isn't just the Bush administration. If you vote for either of the Big Two, the person you voted for has been bought and paid for by the MAFIAA, and they are in full support of sending the copyright Gestapo after law-breakers worldwide.

Except that they can't do much. Sure, the U.S. government can impose economic sanctions on non-compliant countries, but that only takes you so far. The U.S. Constitution requires that the federal government respect the sovereignty of foreign nations. U.S. courts won't typically touch a copyright infringement case if the infringement occurs overseas.

I see Canada isn't on there...

[Dorkmaster Flek]

Could that have anything to do with the fact that we just caved [michaelgeist.ca] to US lobbyist pressure to buy some goodwill?

Piracy?

[treehouse]

Even /. has bought into calling copyright infringement "piracy". If you don't think it's the moral equivalent of murder on the high seas, then don't use the RIAA term "piracy". You just play into their hands.

Re:Can't get to the article....

[mdozturk]

Anyone go to the Office of the United States Trade Representitive [ustr.gov] web site? The corners of all squares are cut off, reminds me of Battlestar Galactica.

Re:Let's be honest

[A beautiful mind]

The U.S. Constitution requires that the federal government respect the sovereignty of foreign nations.

Guess that worked pretty well over the last 150 or so years, where dozens of countries were trampled over by the USA, in some cases bringing chaos, violence and death to those countries.

Re:That told them!

[azemute]

Well... Canada was. Not the UK however.

The countries placed on a lower-level watch list were Belarus, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Jamaica, South Korea, Kuwait, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

Re:Israel

[PHPfanboy]

This is largely from lobbying by US pharmaceutical companies due to competition from Israeli generic drug manufacturers.

Re:Let's be honest

[Silver Sloth]

Here's the NYT article [nytimes.com]

Re:That told them!

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure the Europeans would appreciate the sudden dumping of vast numbers of Chinese made products. Case in point http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/421311 0.stm [bbc.co.uk]

I attest my country

[junglee_iitk]

As an Indian I can attest that there is nothing going on in India to protect "Intellectual property". I am neglecting the facts that KPO [google.com] is a branded commodity for US, and the Bollywood industry has been doing its own part of playing RIAA in India.
1) India is big, poor, and in short, 3rd world country. It has problems involving supply of water (clean or not), clean air etc. It surprises many people in India when they learn that other countries don't have regular power failures. I don't think there is absolutely anything anyone can do to stop piracy. If they could, they would stop theft of electricity first. And I am not even sure "Intellectual property" is widely accepted as property.
2) Bollywood et. al. will never add the DRM. Dirt cheap electronics from China and Taiwan are driving the market, and anyone having a TV is buying a DVD player. And unlike most other countries, movies in Bollywood are made for the lowest section of society. No one can take the risk of screwing this market. Just some days ago I bought a DVD and was able to just copy-paste-play it. Region lock is not known to most people.

Those are what I consider the good parts. The bad part is, though, that open source is a far off concept - a competition between free Windows and free Linux. I don't even remember a place where I can buy Windows legally. If you ask the dealer, he will just burn a CD for you, for free or for 15 rs. (.25 ). Unless Linux becomes as big as Windows, good luck having it a "Desktop OS".

Piracy - The lost battle

[camperdave]

Even /. has bought into calling copyright infringement "piracy". If you don't think it's the moral equivalent of murder on the high seas, then don't use the RIAA term "piracy". You just play into their hands.

First of all, piracy [wikipedia.org] is not murder on the high seas, it's robbery on the high seas. Secondly, language is constantly evolving. A word that means one thing one day, may mean something else later. "Gay", for example, means light-hearted and happy. However, it now also means effeminate, homosexual, etc. It did not have those secondary meanings a century ago, or even fifty years ago. "Hacker" is another example. It used to refer to a person who modifies electronic equipment to get higher performance. Now it has the added meaning of breaking or bypassing computer security systems. Once the alternate definition becomes broadly known it becomes official.

So, rage all you want. You will never get "piracy" back. Nor will we get "hacker" back. It's a lost battle.

Facts - MAFIAA skews Dem big-time

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't spell DMCA without the "D".... [opensecrets.org]

Yep, the entertainment industry gives at least twice as much to Democrats as they do to Republicans. Since 1990, they've given $137,219,474 to Dems, and $63,574,385 to Repubs.

The recording industry is even more skewed [opensecrets.org], giving $13,635,639 to Dems and $3,727,147 to Repubs since 1990. That's 78% to Dems - with some election cycles having 85% of the recording industries political contributions going to Dems.

But that's nothing compared to the movie industry [opensecrets.org], which gave $47,800,285 to Dems and $7,192,062 to Repubs since 1990. Up to 93% of movie industry political contributions have gone to Dems in some election cycles, with that number never lower than 78%.

There's a reason why the DMCA was signed by a Democratic President. Hell, there are millions of reasons, all of them green...

The cognitive dissonance among sheltered /. basement-dwellers that this post is going to cause will be funny.

Re:Israel

[attributor]

Not really -- a 140 billion dollar Israeli economy is not kept solvent by 2.4 billion in military aid and 50 million dollars in other aid.

BTW, 2.4 billion military aid comes with a clause that Israel has to purchase for this money
weapon systems from the US alone.

This effectively removes 2.4 billion out of the military budget that might be spent on
Israeli manufacturers with excellent reputation and potential competition for the
US arms industry.

Also 2.4 is small change to maintain the balance of force with 2 trillion dollars
the Arab world has from oil revenue.

Re:Let's be honest

[Entropius]

NYC: under 3000 dead on 9/11

Iraq: over 3000 Americans and 60000 (conservative estimate) Iraqis dead

Re:That told them!

[endianx]

what about all the piracy that goes on in the states.

Piracy here in the USA is certainly rampant. I suppose the difference is, though, that it is illegal here, and at least somewhat enforced. Piracy here in the USA is more of an underground thing. In a place like China, piracy is not only perfectly accepted, it is encouraged.

We certainly can't blame a government if they are not able to put a stop to piracy. But we can if they refuse to even try.

Not surprised to see Venezuela in there...

[tit0.c]

Piracy here is so rampant that you cannot walk a block in the city center without finding a street vendor openly selling movies,music and software. Once they make enough money they can just get a small shop in one of the malls.
Hell, one of the biggest piracy centers in the country has to be the oldest university.They have a huge corridor filled with almost every single software,movie or music you can think of.Movies for the low price of $2.32. Full DVD copy,menus,cover and all.

Re:That told them!

[Anonymous Coward]

Complete and utter nonsense. The amount of software piracy here in Israel is comparable to that in, e.g., the UK, France or Ireland.

The reason that Israel is on the list is completely different: Teva, which -- allegedly -- in its research, does not respect American pharmaceutical patents, and is one of the world's largest generic drugs companies. American pharma companies wage a battle against Teva for many years now. Teva's success is causing American companies losses in many billions (way beyond what Teva earns, because generic drugs sell for much less than the amount for which the non-generic drugs would have sold; the loss is on two levels, (a) lost sales, and (b) being forced to reduce prices).