US Continues To Whine About Other Nations Not Following Our Draconian Intellectual Property Regime

from the perhaps-because-it's-bad-for-them? dept

Tue, May 1st 2007 10:12pm — Mike Masnick

As expected, the US government placed a bunch of countries on a special "watch list," saying they haven't been doing enough to protect American intellectual property. This whole thing is something of a charade. As Michael Geist has noted, the whole process is "a biased analysis of foreign law supported by a well-orchestrated lobby effort." Basically, the US starts shoving other countries around telling them those countries aren't obeying US law -- even though those countries aren't subject to US law. Some will point out that these countries need to abide by these laws to live up to international treaties, but that's a red herring. Many of the treaties were pushed through by the same lobbyists who are now complaining and without the countries having much of a choice, or a realization of what those treaties actually meant. The fact is, almost all of these countries are making reasoned decisions concerning what's best for their citizens, and that doesn't have to support the views of some US industries. Of course, the more the US complains about what's happening in these countries, the more likely the complaining will backfire. It's simply going to encourage these countries to search out alternative routes that are likely to hurt the US economy even more. If the US government actually took the time to understand why these countries weren't following some of the more draconian practices of American IP law, perhaps they'd recognize that the problem may be with our laws -- not with the way others are ignoring them.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

27 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

chill, 1 May 2007 @ 10:58pm

digg
you seriously need to post about the downfall of digg by its users.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
dorpus, 2 May 2007 @ 12:19am

Squeeze Play
The other countries are doing their best to hurt us anyway, selling products made out of factories with child labor, exporting cheap weapons, criminals, drugs. The US allows lobbyists to act aggressively, so trade negotiators can cut a deal later to make other countries clean up their act in exchange for punishing piracy less.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
dorpus, 2 May 2007 @ 1:25am

Copycat Nation
There is a video of an amusement park in Beijing owned by the Chinese government, which looks exactly like Disneyland. The banner at the entrance even says "Disney is too far away, let's go here!" The CEO of the amusement park says that all the characters are "original inventions".

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/videonews/fnn/20070502/20070502-00000905-fnn-int.html
[ link to this | view in thread ]
TechNoFear (profile), 2 May 2007 @ 2:03am

US Corp seeks to patent the pig...
If a large US corp gets it's way then it will be illegal to breed pigs.

This corp wants a patent on the breeding method, the pig and all the offspring. There is nothing new here. The pig is not GE (yet). The 'invention' is simply a combination of existing breeding methods.

Unfortunately most pigs in the world (over 160 countries) will be covered by this patent and most pigs contain these desirable genetic markers (for 'meatiness', growth rate ect).

This corp also patents grains. Releases the GM grain into a country, even if the patent is not approved.
If the grain is later exported (from a country that does not allow living organisms to be patened) to a country that does, then the importer of the grain is sued for damages.

This has a chilling effect on grain exports from countries that do not allow living organisms to be patened (as there is no way to prove that the grain is not from GM seed but from cross pollination).

Not to mention that this corp has tried to patent traditionally bred wheat from India and soy plants from China.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
mike allen, 2 May 2007 @ 2:18am

Re: Squeeze Play
If you beleave that you beleave the moon is made of cheese
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Tarky7, 2 May 2007 @ 2:32am

OMG !
You mean the Moon is not made out of Cheese ?

*wanders to hill to howl at the moon*
[ link to this | view in thread ]
dorpus, 2 May 2007 @ 4:36am

Re: Re: Squeeze Play
What, you refuse to believe the basics of international politics? If country A causes problems for country B through issue X, and country B causes problems for country A through unrelated issue Y, then politicians from both countries will work out an X-Y compromise.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
LOL, 2 May 2007 @ 4:39am

Squeeze Play
Ahhh... isn't that what we do? Out sourcing jobs to cheap labor and enough guns to arm everyone a few times over. We just like to piss and whine about anyone that doesn't do exactly what we think they should.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
dorpus, 2 May 2007 @ 6:01am

Re: Squeeze Play
Do you believe child labor factories are ethical? How do you feel about Russia being the world's largest exporter of arms? Should 10-year-olds in Africa be killing each other with Russian AK-47's?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
America is da debil!!!!, 2 May 2007 @ 7:04am

America is da debil!!!!
Can we agree America has been priced out of being a production economy?

Can we agree that America is then left with intellectual property to export?

If we can agree on this how exactly is insisting other nations do a better job protecting our companies rights to not have its exports stolen a bad thing? For that matter how is it any different from Korea complaining if America decided to impose a 10% tariff on all Korean imports?

Actually if you look at trademark and patent infringement in China that tariff would actually need to be around 60%.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Sanguine Dream, 2 May 2007 @ 7:15am

Re: Re: Re: Squeeze Play
Oh but the US is much more sinister than that. If countries A through D are causing problems for country E then E will do the following:

Impose the level one solution on A.
Impose the level two solution on B.
Impose the level three solution C.
E will go back to A to impose the level three solution on it in order to catch them up to C.
Impose the level four solution on D.
E will then back to impose the level 5 solution on A-C in order to catch them up.
And so on and so on...

Its a vicious game of coproate leapfrog.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Tintin, 2 May 2007 @ 7:29am

Try it here
Whoa, there. I'd really like to see an American corp trying to bust it's way into an Indian kid's home and sue him for violating copyrights and intellectual licenses. I dont care much for official figures, but I know for a fact that "almost" all PC's bought here have some software or the other which is pirated. And I'm not even going to mention all the music and hollywood movies in all the hard disks. Buying anything original is a joke. Sometime before, in a previous comment, I'd mentioned that India still hasn't seen any real broadband yet. When it does, the piracy watchdogs will have a hell lot of howling to do. They better save their breath.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Dorfus, 2 May 2007 @ 7:31am

Re: Re: Squeeze Play
Da. Child labor factories are ethical. I feel proud to be in lead exporting arms. Better cost ratio's and lack of export controls mean ist 20% cheaper per 10 year old to keel each other.

Maybe it would be "better" (ethical) if 10 year old african children killed each other with M-16's?

Sorry for troll feeding everyone.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Wicked, 2 May 2007 @ 7:52am

I think the point is...
The point isn't about protecting Intellectual Property so much as how we choose to do it and IF we should.

Our patent system is screwed up. Period.

Look at the Verizon case, where they have patents for VOIP that they CLEARLY should never have gotten, yet they did. So not only do they have what should be an invalid patent but we should make sure that it is protected overseas?

I'm not saying that there we shouldn't protect our intellectual property, as we should. We need to make sure that the things we are protecting are right, though.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Wizard Prang, 2 May 2007 @ 8:15am

Irrelevant
What do IP laws have to do with "cheap weapons, criminals, drugs"?

Nothing.

The IP-mavens do NOT have altruistic motives; they are simply concerned with the bottom-lines of their constituents...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Terence Stern, 2 May 2007 @ 8:47am

Time to develop a competitive advantage
Its about time that the US stopped whining and got off their collective fat butt and developed some competitive advantage. Their greatest innovations and exports of the last 10 years appear to be Wal-Mart and McDonalds, or shopping and, er, shopping?

Diddling around patenting business methods and the blindingly obvious just skirts around the fact that the US no longer designs, develops or manufactures anything that the rest of the world wants to buy, and its economy is currently propped up by Asians lending them money to buy stuff they either can no longer make or don't need from, well, Asians, meaning that America is predominantly a nation of shop assistants.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Chris Brand, 2 May 2007 @ 9:35am

Pots and kettles
Let's not forget that the WTO has actually ruled that the USA is in breach of it's actual international copyright obligations :
http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds160_e.htm
and has shown no sign of planning to fix that.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
SailorRipley, 2 May 2007 @ 10:22am

Re: Re: Squeeze Play
Right...

like a whole bunch of products sold in the United States (including products from American companies) are not at least partially made by children...

And unless those AK-47's are made by children, they're not even relevant, nor is whether Russia is the world's largest exporter of arms (btw, how did you Americans manage to loose that title?)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
That Guy, 2 May 2007 @ 12:35pm

Separating copyright from patents
I think a point should be made to separate a patent from a copyright in discussions like this. Patents try to put a box around "ideas." When the patent holder has the "boxed" idea they can they go around selling, licensing or executing said idea.

Copyrights however mostly deal with finished original products that are intellectual assets.

If a company or individual creates a book, movie, song, computer program and spends the money to develop it, create it, and sell it via some form of media I think they have the right to be the sole company or individual to sell it.

I don't know if its the lobbyists or the politicians who clump these concepts together, but its rather clear that these are two battles that need to be fought separately.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Charles Griswold, 2 May 2007 @ 3:13pm

Arms Export
Russia is not the world leader in arms export. The United States is. In 2005 (no official data for 2006 yet) the U.S. exported $11.55bn worth of arms. In the same period, Russia exported $6.226bn worth of arms.

Not that this has anything to do with IP.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Charles Griswold, 2 May 2007 @ 3:24pm

Re: Re: Re: Squeeze Play
like a whole bunch of products sold in the United States (including products from American companies) are not at least partially made by children...

My brother and I worked in fish processing when we were teen-agers. I believe that my brother was 14 at the time. We did it for the spending cash. No one was forcing us to. Now, thanks to child labor laws, we would not be allowed to do that. IMHO, there is nothing wrong with kids working to earn money as long as they are not being abused or forced to work.

And unless those AK-47's are made by children, they're not even relevant, nor is whether Russia is the world's largest exporter of arms (btw, how did you Americans manage to loose that title?)

As far as I know, we haven't. That's kind of weird when you consider the fact that the AK-47 is, in many ways, superior to the M-16. If I had to go into a war zone with limited support, I know which one I would choose.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
John (profile), 2 May 2007 @ 5:23pm

IP laws and online gambling
If the US wants to enforce its IP laws on other countries, can Antigua ask the World Trade Organization to enforce its online gambling laws on the US?
In an article on Slate.com, Henry Lanman argues that Antigua has as much right to enforce their laws on us as we do on them. And if Antigua is not allowed to enforce their online gambling laws on the US, then Antigua can ask the WTO to let them disregard US laws... including IP. And if Antigua doesn't recognize US IP laws, then would mean you could legally purchase Windows, or any other software, or DVD's, or movies.
http://www.slate.com/id/2153352/
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Charles Griswold, 2 May 2007 @ 10:54pm

Re: IP laws and online gambling
If the US wants to enforce its IP laws on other countries, can Antigua ask the World Trade Organization to enforce its online gambling laws on the US?

Sure, why not? That would be kind of funny to watch. It would be even funnier if Antigua won.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Phil Schreiber, 3 May 2007 @ 12:22pm

US Continues To Whine About Other Nations Not Foll
Just one more example of America's international bullying that is so entrenched within the George Bush administration.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Jesse, 3 Jun 2007 @ 11:30pm

So tired of US Government working against it's own
These ridiculous IP laws the US is exporting to other countries actually hurt Americans. They stifle innovation for us, and put unnecessary burdens on foreign people and governments. We need to make IP law a major issue when we elect officials in both state and federal levels. It's time the USA it's own peoples interests above corporate lobbyists.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
nijet99, 31 May 2008 @ 3:16am

Re: Re: Re: Squeeze Play
Or country X just brings their "democracy" to country Y: http://humor.beecy.net/funny-pictures/american-democracy/bumper-sticker.jpg
[ link to this | view in thread ]
nijet00, 31 May 2008 @ 3:17am

Re: Re: Squeeze Play
It would be much better if the US would be the world's largest exporter of arms, right? Oh wait, the US give arms to (now called) terroristic groups...
[ link to this | view in thread ]