US Says 4.3 Billion People Live With Bad IP Laws 229
bowser100 writes "The US government has released its annual Special 301 report (PDF) in which it purports to identify those countries with inadequate intellectual property laws. Michael Geist digs into the report, noting the list is so large that it is rendered meaningless. According to the report, approximately 4.3 billion people
live in countries without effective intellectual property protection. Since the report does not include any African countries outside of North Africa, the US is effectively saying that only a small percentage of the world meets its standard for IP protection."
In other news (Score:3, Informative)
When you exclude most of Africa and the US you have... about 4.3 billion people.
Re:why is parent modded down ? (Score:2, Informative)
It wasn't, it just started at -1 because sopssa was repeatedly modded into oblivion [slashdot.org] in a discussion about Google. And from what I can tell from the content of the comments, unjustifiably so.
Re:You know.... (Score:2, Informative)
Well, when we were the only country on Earth with a binding written constitution
Let me guess - you are posting from a parallel universe, right? [wikipedia.org]
Re:Democracy (Score:2, Informative)
Funny, let's see what Ben Franklin had to say about that:
At the close of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on September 18, 1787, a Mrs. Powel anxiously awaited the results, and as Benjamin Franklin emerged from the long task now finished, asked him directly: "Well Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" "A republic if you can keep it" responded Franklin.
Care to try again?
Re:Democracy (Score:3, Informative)
No. In fact, you couldn't be more wrong. The founders of the US thought democracy was a terrible idea that would lead to tyranny of the majority, so they specifically set out to create a republic with a system of checks and balances to make it more difficult for that scenario to play out. Thomas Jefferson himself is famed for stating, "A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine."