Senate Wants To Send US Copyright Cops To Foreign Countries

from the from-all-sides... dept

With the ProIP bill moving forward and trade representatives hard at work on an ACTA treaty to force customs agents to search for copyright violations at the border, Against Monopoly points out that Senators Max Baucus and Orrin Hatch have introduced a new bill having to do with intellectual property overseas. The bill would have the US Trade Representative draw up piracy "Priority Watch List," allowing the White House take actions against countries that don't get in line, including placing officials at foreign embassies with the sole purpose of enforcing US IP rights. Yup, that's correct. The US may soon be sending copyright cops to other countries. This actually seems like a repeat of a bill introduced last year, but it still should worry other countries -- especially when the US has a history of creating such priority watch lists of IP offenders in the past -- and that list is usually laughable, in that it accuses countries that have much stricter copyright laws than the US itself.
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Filed Under: copyright, copyright cops, max baucus, orrin hatch


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  1. identicon
    NeoConBushSupporter, 30 Sep 2008 @ 10:39am

    New World Order

    This is the nature of the modern world. Modern international disagreements are mainly fought over “rule sets”. America is a lot like ROME, but unlike ROME, we do not demand tribute from other nations in the form of taxes, we demand that they subscribe to the same economic “rule set” we do. Considering this “New World Order”, I think this makes perfect sense? Isn’t this part of what we have been working the last 50 years achieve?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 30 Sep 2008 @ 11:44am

    Canada says - bite me.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 30 Sep 2008 @ 11:44am

    Re: New World Order

    No. No, its not what we've been working towards.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 30 Sep 2008 @ 11:49am

    Re: New World Order

    If by "we" you mean the unseen rulers of the world, that international fraternity of "central bank" owners, then yes, yes we have.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Craig, 30 Sep 2008 @ 11:56am

    WMCI

    It will be a new excuse to invade a country - Weapons of Mass Copyright Infringement. And like WMDs, they won't have to prove anything so they can simply invade based on the assertion that there is overwhelming evidence as collected by Homeland Security at the Canadian border.

    The US wants Canada's hydroelectricity, oil and gas reserves, timber, and fresh water...I can practically see the US military lining up on the 49th parallel awaiting orders to pour across the border to protect the world from those Canadians who practice Copyright Terrorism. Then the resources will start flowing freely south (gives new meaning to "free trade") so that we Canadians can't use any of it to further our agenda of copyright infringement.

    And if you don't support the war against copyright terrorism, then you are unpatriotic and you don't love the US and you are just as bad as those evil Canadians who live north of you.

    Wait, Canada might be safe. If 20% of US citizens can't find the USA on a world map, then there's a greater probability that they won't be able to find us! O Joy! O Bliss! O Rapture!

    Geography FTW.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 30 Sep 2008 @ 12:27pm

    Like all good headlines...an inaccurate attention grabber.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 30 Sep 2008 @ 12:47pm

    BTW, here is a copy of the Senate Bill:

    http://www.patentbaristas.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/iipepa.pdf

    Unlike the "Bailout Bill", this one is only 10 pages.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Rekrul, 30 Sep 2008 @ 2:48pm

    Yes, let's spend taxpayer money where it's really needed; Protecting multi-billion dollar corporations!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 30 Sep 2008 @ 4:00pm

    If they send copyright cops to Australia, we'll just get our boxing kangaroos to beat the shit out of them.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    Norm, 30 Sep 2008 @ 6:16pm

    James Bond, where are you?

    This looks like a task for a copyright secret agent hero. Send our fearless undercover operative to all corners of the globe, fighting the righteous battle for The Entertainment Cartel.

    Or, perhaps we could contract the Mossad, to sneak into rogue copyright-infringing nations, kidnap the evil pirates, and bring them to justice in Hollywood. They did it with Nazis, why not copyright pirates?

    Time to start checking the classifieds in Soldier of Fortune magazine. Ought to be lots of volunteers.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. icon
    bikey (profile), 1 Oct 2008 @ 12:35am

    copyright

    Combine this with surveillance powers and border searches of computers, and you have 1) the ability to find anyone with a copy of anything on their computer or person and 2) a 'legal' reason to apprehend anyone they choose based on a trumped-copyright offense.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 14 Dec 2008 @ 7:00pm

    Re: James Bond, where are you?

    link to this | view in thread ]


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