USTR Releases Ridiculous 'Naughty' Special 301 List For Countries Who Don't Pass Silly Laws Hollywood Wants
from the silly-and-pointless dept
Every year around this time, the USTR puts out its increasingly laughable Special 301 Report, which merely takes the countries that IP maxmalists say are bad, and officially declares them naughty. The 2012 list has come out (pdf and embedded below) and it's as silly and pointless as usual. Canada has an official policy stating that it does not accept the Special 301 process as legitimate, and (of course) it once again finds itself on the list. There is no fathomable reason for this other than the fact that Hollywood wants Canada to pass stringent new copyright laws that include anti-circumvention provisions. But the fact is that Canada's copyright law is already much more draconian than US law. Then there are countries like Israel, whose copyright laws are actually on par with the US's... but they get put on the naughty "priority watch" list as well.You know who gets removed? Spain. As you may recall, Spain recently put in place its own version of SOPA -- a law that goes way, way beyond current US copyright law, which was heavily pushed by US diplomats, despite the fact that public hated the bill -- and even local movie industry insiders hated the bill. On top of that, economists argued that it would do significant harm to the Spanish economy. But Hollywood wanted it, so the USTR cheers it on and removes them from the list.
What a joke.
Just last week, we wrote about an alternative list, from Consumers International, that judged copyright laws around the globe, based on how much the laws actually benefited the public. On that list, Israel, India and Indonesia took the top three spots. On the USTR list -- all three of those countries end up on the "naughty" priority watch list.
Amusingly, the Special 301 report talks up the importance of both ACTA and TPP... conveniently ignoring the fact that the EU Parliament seems very interested in rejecting ACTA, and not even mentioning the worldwide controversy over the binding treaty (which the US signed unconstitutionally, without getting Congressional approval). It also completely ignores the fact that Colombia just rushed through its own version of SOPA to appease the US. Instead, it complains that Colombia isn't doing enough.
It's really amazing that anyone takes this list seriously. We've seen officials from the US Copyright Office -- who are ideologically aligned with the USTR -- publicly mock the Special 301 list before, which is about the level of respect it deserves. Public Knowledge refers to the process as being "fact-free" and that's being generous. The list is such a joke at this point, that it would be a good thing for other countries to just respond to any mention of it by laughing heartily out loud.
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Filed Under: acta, canada, consumers international, india, indonesia, israel, spain, special 301 report, tpp, ustr
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Diplomatic Capture
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Re: Diplomatic Capture
The original idea was to embarrass the countries that end up there. It doesn't even do that now. In most of the world it's not even news. It certainly reaffirms that Hollywood sets US foreign policy these days.
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Aw, poor baby.
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Re: Aw, poor baby.
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Re: Aw, poor baby.
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Re: Re: Aw, poor baby.
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Re: Aw, poor baby.
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An interesting little bug
(angle brackets squared to avoid being parsed)
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Can't let India and Canada have all the enjoyment and LOLS
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Anyway
Got to love that pro consumer list. Israel, India and Indonesia, hugely important globally when it comes to movies, television and music... not!
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India and Indonesian are also IP negative countries, that is to say that what they add to IP overall is significantly less than the consume (and abuse). Not surprising at all to see them held in high regard on Techdirt.
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"They speak Bahasa Indonesia, a language very different from English."
Since that doesn't stop them from wanting english movies, or from subtitling them into their local dialect, it would seem only fitting that a powerhouse of movie making would take the time to either ship subtitled in english movies, or even more so, do integral english versions with vioce over actors making the movie whole. I mean, a good movie is a good movie, right?
Remind me again now how the Indian pharma business has done so well, making generic knock offs of currently patent medications, and of course, the massive and illegal resale market to the US and Canada... Iagra, anyone?
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Subtitling things not even sold to them?! How dare they!
Cheaper medications?! Those fiends!
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You don't live in an area with a significant (large to you) Indian or Pakistani population, do you?
If you did, you would see those lines.
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I'm fascinated by this statement. I have no idea whether or not it's true, but that's not surprising since I also have little idea what it means. What, specifically, does "adding to IP overall" mean? How is this measured?
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This is not the same as the High Court striking down AFACt on a 5-0 basis, nor of all other appeals going iiNet's way.
Optus in my opinion should appeal since the doctrine of "personal use" is not defined properly and is highly subjective.
Also the Optus decision doesn't have any weight with International courts, whereas the Roadshow v iiNet decision certainly does, more so in common law countries like Canada and India.
And if you consider India unimportant globally you really haven't looked at how many consumers are in India compared to the USA and where India's economy is headed..
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A loooooong time ago.
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Answer: SBS
Also who said Anything specifically about Bollywood, I said the Indian Economy.. Its not just at present pretty good but its potential compared to the over saturation of the consumer market within the USA/EU is like the rest of Asia... Huge
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I uh... er... wha..?
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A loooooong time ago.
If you're not aware of the size of both the Indian movie industry and music industries, your ignorance speaks more than anything you could type.
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It wasn't even original thought. It was almost word for word the same bs the US guys use, like they all went to the same copyright maximilists conference and were handed the same fact sheet on what to say and what not to say to the media and elected officials.
The only bad thing is that he said AFACT would be appealing the decision. Hopefully the courts won't have a bar of it.
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You have to realise he just lost and LOST big time by the tune of $12mill not once, not twice but third time the loser to what AFACT, Roadshow and their puppet masters in the MPAA (there is emails to prove that accusation I just made) thought would be a slam dunk against an Aussie small ISP
And Neil stopped to think one day way back in 2008, and strangely forgot to start again.
AFACT cannot appeal the decision other than crawling to both sides of parliament (Greens wont give me time of day) to change laws. At moment Gillard have more important matters to deal with them some stupid Industry shrill who at the most gives the Australian economy 0.5% of the total GDP.
High Court decisions cannot be appealed. Though the Optus v Telstra/Foxtel decision can still be appealed, and should be
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"Challenge Accepted!"
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I agree. Hopefully the United States will lead the charge to be on this list! We were the first to throw off the tyranny of England and we should be at the top of the USTR Special 301 list.
Well, here is to hope.
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Naughty or nice
"He's making his list
He's checking it twice
He's gonna find out who's naughty or nice
U S T R's coming, to town"
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Other Lists
Maybe I'm mature, but if I was supreme leader of another country and I found myself on this list, I would Make a "special 302 list" myself. The subject would be "Countries My Country Have Found to be Dicks" and the US would occupy the top spot.
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Re: Other Lists
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Re: Other Lists
There are some amazing lists nobody ever pays attention to if you know where to find them. I hope (for the sake of humor) someone has cataloged them somewhere.
Not completely off-topic, the USA is near the top of rogue terrorist states, I forget where that list comes from... Certainly Central/South America (or anyone that pays attention) would agree with that.
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Re: Other Lists
*boom boom*
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But in the end, I found that the special 301 list was permanently moved to the RIAA's fantasy land.
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Re: Re: Re: Other Lists
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Should we not make a list ?
Play them at their own game.
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'Fact-Free' is an understatement
I was amused to read some of the 'complaints'. For example, the 301 states that "The US encourages Israel to amend its copyright law to provide for statutory damages". Now, I don't know who does research for the USTR or if that person reads Hebrew, but he/she should look into article 56 of the Israeli Copyright law, which is conveniently headlined 'statutory damages' - I think it has some value in this context. The rest of the Israeli section is not much better, and is filled with nonsense and plain mistakes.
Anyway, it's good to live in a country which prefers my rights over the major studios'. Israel, keep it up!
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freedom to share
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Thanks Justice Masnick, this will come as a real revelation to the rest of the Supreme Court.
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1 vs Everybody
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Re: 1 vs Everybody
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Notably Absent
How could such an egregious oversight occur?
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improved enforcement efforts, leading to the closure of at least two significant notorious
markets.
LOL, The one in Ortigas and Quiapo is still open dumb **AA drones! HA! U can nvr kill us pirates!
The United States also remains concerned
about policies that inhibit U.S. exports of IPR-intensive products to the Philippines, including
measures that limit the market for imported pharmaceutical products.
Yes because certainly U.S. drugs are cheaper. F.Y.I. it isn't and to hell with this list. Shove all your drugs up your ass America, 'coz I swear it ain't gonna see Philippine soil.
To anyone whose country is in the Priority Watch List I jelly U.
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how about the suck ass list
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Re: how about the suck ass list
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