IIPA Wants Canada And Spain On The 'Naughty' Special 301 List Even Though They Brought In Tough New Copyright Laws
from the base-ingratitude dept
Here on Techdirt, one of the things we look forward to each year is the comedy production known as the 301 Report, where the US makes the world line up in a row, and then names and shames all the naughty countries whose intellectual monopoly laws aren't outrageous enough. In advance of the official naughty list, there are helpful suggestions from the fans of monopoly maximalism, including the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), which has just released its 2013 demands. Mostly it's the usual suspects -- China, India, Russia etc. But there's an interesting change from the previous year's list: Canada has moved from the really naughty "Priority Watch List" to the only slightly naughty "Watch List".
As Michael Geist points out, far from being good news, that's outrageous:
Those that thought passing Bill C-11 -- the Canadian copyright reform bill that contained some of the most restrictive digital lock rules in the world -- would satisfy U.S. groups will be disappointed. The IIPA wants Canada back on the piracy watch list, one notch below the Special Watch List (where the US placed Canada last year).
Nor is Canada the only country that might be surprised to find itself on the naughty step again. As Mike explained last year, Spain was removed from the official Special 301 list for being an obedient little vassal state and bringing in the punitive Ley Sinde, as instructed, despite huge public and business opposition. And now, guess what? The IIPA already wants Spain back on the list for not doing enough in this area (pdf):
Despite the praise for Bill C-11 last year, the groups are right back in criticism mode and demanding reforms. The IIPA is now unsure if the enabler provision will help stop sites that facilitate infringement (despite the fact that its members have yet to use the provision) and concerned with the prospect of new exceptions to the digital lock rules. In fact, its criticisms of the rules for Internet providers (it wants a notice-and-takedown system, tougher rules on search engines that link to infringing content, and new rules to target repeat infringers) are so strong that the organization implausibly claims possible non-compliance with the WIPO Internet treaties.Contrary to the expectations surrounding the implementation of ley Sinde that led to
Spain's removal from the Special 301 Watch List last year, Spain saw no positive developments in 2012.
Let's hope Canada and Spain -- and everyone else -- draw the obvious conclusion from the IIPA's latest calls: that no matter what countries do, no matter what legislation they bring in, and no matter what disproportionately harsh punishments they inflict on their own people, it will never, ever be enough, and there will always be further demands, and further threats to put them back on the naughty lists. The only solution is to stand up to this blackmail once and for all, and to treat the Special 301 list with the contempt it deserves.
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Filed Under: 301, canada, copyright, new laws, spain, special 301 report
Companies: iipa
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Give a mouse a cookie....
I vote we nominate a top 10 copyright abusers list. MAFIAA will take up quite a few spots, but then you gotta leave room for Prenda and Cameron....
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Not fair...
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Re: Give a mouse a cookie....
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We got everything we wanted, but you have to give us more.
The assumption is the path they are on is the single correct path and if it isn't working they just need more and then it is going to work.
It would be nice if the people giving them this power were to stop and look at what those complaining are doing.
How can anyone look at the "settlement" in Canada for labels committing commercial copyright infringement, and believe they are these poor little sheep being ripped apart by wolves? If they had been held to the same standard they have gotten imposed on everyone else they owed billions. They settled for millions and one label went the extra mile and sued their insurance carrier to pay off their portion of the settlement caused by the labels illegal acts.
They go on and on about how filesharing is stealing kajillions from them, but everytime we get a glimpse into how they are operating it becomes clear that the labels are worse thieves than they accuse everyone else of being.
They keep listening to groups that only exist to "battle" piracy, and ignore that those groups have to keep piracy alive so they can survive. That no matter how much they get, it never gets better. Rather than listening to special "reports" that twist facts, we need to start looking at the actual results and question why we keep doing the same things that never work.
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Special 404 list
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No Netherlands?
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Of course...
Don't mistake what they're asking for for a compromise. They want you to compromise by giving them half the pie, and then they'll ask you to compromise again for half of that... pretty soon they've eaten the whole pie and are demanding you pay half their dry-cleaning bill because they spilled pie on their shirt.
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Draconian copyright does save me money.
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Re:
Lex GoEar incoming!
As for Canada making the list, it is 100% certain that the countries with the most trade with USA will be scrutinized more and since Canada has had some sensibility in their drafting of laws and didnt give out data on the thousands of IPs sought by trolls, they are pretty sure to end there no matter what.
301 is the US list of foreign shaming and thus it is one of the lists creating dissention and hate towards USA...
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Re:
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Re:
See baseless loaded "questions" meant to cause people to question the speaker aren't real useful are they?
You really should take a course in how to effectively debate, rather than just make round a bout allegations trying to paint your opponent as an evildoer.
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meh.
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Error: Constitution not Found in US
But yeah all this monopoly belief crap in the USA is making a so called free country look really bad. So bad that it's not even funny and very sad.
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cake and eating it
RE: the Spanish cultural laws hurt us too, make them stop.
feel sick.
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The question?
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Though this one is quite predictable by now, isn't it?
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