US on China piracy
p2pnet.net news:- The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) is a mash-up of vested interest copyright groups representing movie, music and software industries, the vast majority of them American-based.
It claims “piracy” in China cost US companies more than $2.2 billion in 2006, but doesn’t give details about how it arrives at the number.
Its members have all at various times been taken to task for presenting unsubstantiated, and sometimes creative, statistics as ‘proof’ of piracy losses.
“The U.S. government withheld a World Trade Organization complaint against China over video and music piracy last October because Beijing said it wanted more time to resolve the matter bilaterally, a U.S. trade official said Thursday,” according to Associated Press, which goes on:
“But Deputy Trade Representative Kharan K. Bhatia told the House Ways and Means subcommittee that if the ongoing negotiations with China are not successful, the United States will bring its case to the world trade body. If the WTO were to rule against China, the United States could seek authorization to impose retaliatory tariffs on Chinese imports.
“China’s ‘rampant infringement of intellectual property rights … robs U.S. businesses of billions of dollars a year in legitimate sales,’ Bhatia said.”
The IIPA has also attacked Canada on behalf of the entertainment cartels.
Canada’s, “chronic failure to modernize its copyright regime has made it a global hub for bootleg movies, pirated software and tiny microchips that allow video-game users to bypass copyright protections, the International Intellectual Property Alliance complains in a submission to the U.S. government,” says a newspaper report.
Also See:
Associated Press – U.S. holding off on WTO complaint over piracy in China, February 15, 2005
attacked Canada – Canada arouses corporate ire, February 15, 2005
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
February 17th, 2007 at 4:29 am
Because such & such “laws” apply in the U.S. is no cause to force them on the remainder of this world.
Some day, perhaps, the various “trade” organizations may come to realize this.