If They Can't Pass SOPA... Senators Ask FTC To Magically Stop Foreign Software Infringement
from the say-what-now? dept
Having failed to pass SOPA, Congress is apparently looking for other ways to keep the big copyright players happy. The latest is a letter sent by 16 senators to the FTC urging the commission to "protect American manufacturers" by cracking down on the fact that foreign companies often use unauthorized software:"This unfairness harms the affected companies and their employees, as well as consumers and the broader economy," the senators wrote. "It also stifles innovation by forcing law-abiding American businesses — large and small — to compete against those businesses that reduce their operating costs through the use of pirated IT."Except that much of that is misleading. First of all, it's unclear that the companies in question would have bought the software otherwise, so arguing that it impacts the software companies isn't necessarily true. It is true that US companies have to compete against those other companies, but is the cost of the software they're using really the difference maker here? Besides, for all types of software there is growing competition from open source alternatives. If US companies want to compete, why not adopt more open source alternatives?
Also, what exactly do these Senators think the FTC can do here? The FTC has no jurisdiction over foreign companies and how they operate at home. Finally, even if the FTC could magically stop these companies from using unauthorized software, the end result is likely that those companies would simply shift to alternatives, such as open source software themselves.
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Filed Under: ftc, it, jurisdiction, software piracy
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They can barely use their Blackberries
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Re: They can barely use their Blackberries
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honestly, all my schooling taught me was that the administrators are corrupt or incompetent, the educators overworked, and that my luck is just Weird. (watch me take absolutely no action to in any way cover my misdeeds, and get off scott-free, minimum. watch me suffer significant penalties (in the scale of 'stuff the school can do without involving your parents' or, occasionally, when that was unavoidable, 'stuff the school can do without involving the law or the creation of any records') for things i had nothing to do with or was the victim of. wheee... (seriously, i had POLICE showing up at my house because i was SICK and the school refused to do anything to allow me to continue my studies while dealing with health issues, instead choosing to add extra financial burdens and waste everyone's time (including the already overworked Doctor)... it was a long and stupid chain of events.))
schools that actually teach the students how to think are few and far between... and here abouts, at least, a lot of them have completely lost the ability to even teach Facts and Skills because they prefer to 'teach the students how to think' by.... not teaching them anything. (seriously, 'teaching the student how to think' meant 'give them research projects and essays without ever teaching how to actually do research, or write essays, or allowing for the fact that you assigned a topic neither the school nor public libraries had any information on. good job.)
grrr, rant rant rant.
anyway, yeah, point is, a school that teaches you how to think is a rare thing.
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Re: They can barely use their Blackberries
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If they're violating existing agreements, why does the FTC specifically have to get involved? What if the countries most used to infringe aren't a part of any of those organisations and/or are not bound to any agreements? What if the sites involved are perfectly legal in their home countries and shouldn't be held accountable to foreign laws?
Oh, sorry, I forgot it's an AC. You want to try and force other countries to change their own laws to please your corporate lords and an easy scapegoat who you can point to when this inevitably fails, instead of actually adapting. Nothing to see here, then...
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Re: Re: They can barely use their Blackberries
Oh you're serious..
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I want you to look at the US Economy,
Then at the Asian, Oceanic, Brazilian, and Chinese Economy.
Back to yours
Notice the difference.
yes they have one that is actually in positive movement
The only sway the FTC has over any other countries trade and/or Economy now is to make that other country laugh hysterically.
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Re: They can barely use their Blackberries
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Of course they think their microscopic brains thin that the FTC can do something
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They should try sending a letter...
Works for me.
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It's not as far fetched as you might think.
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Refer to my comment above to the reason why the USA cannot afford to disallow countries to stop selling to you.
Your citizens are already buying bugger all, and you want then to spend less?
WOW
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Why deal with the bureaucracy of proving to the FTC you don't infringe a software patent or license when you could just avoid the whole mess by adopting linux/libreoffice?
Why deal with the US when doing business at all?
I suppose industrial control systems are still proprietary enough to be targetable, but that's about it.
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Response to: Vincent Clement on Apr 5th, 2012 @ 1:19pm
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The real victims
It's true, there is a real victim of software piracy, and it's open source software. In the imaginary world where software piracy is impossible, I'm sure software sales would be up a bit, and open source software use would be up massively.
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https://www.centos.org/ (aka pirated version of Red Hat Enterprise)
LoL
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A fair field of play in commerce?
I'll give you a hint. Start with companies like Bank of America and work your way out from there. If you think rampant software piracy is the biggest institutional threat to the American taxpayer and the American economy, I have a bank to sell you.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/bank-of-america-too-crooked-to-fail-20120314
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This isn't even close to right. Companies using pirated software have no advantage over companies using equivalent free software. So the advantage is there, pirated software or not, to anyone who wants to take advantage of it.
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ummm..
I'm still trying to figure out how one pirates trained professional's salaries and infrastructure, which is nearly all of the cost.
Haven't they heard, software doesn't sell, services do. Look at Red Hat.
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Re: ummm..
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The Sh$t List
Who's with me? I don't see one name I would miss.
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Re: The Sh$t List
At least open the window first, cleaners hate bits of glass on plushpile
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