US pressured Canada to join copyright complaint against China
Michael Geist sez,
Late last month, the World Trade Organization released a much-anticipated decision involving a U.S.-led complaint against China over its intellectual property laws. Canada was among a number of countries that participated in the case, which alleged that China's domestic laws, border measures and criminal penalties for intellectual property violations do not comply with its international treaty obligations.Scaling wall over Canada's trade complaint against China (Thanks, Michael!)On April 25, 2007, David Emerson, then the Minister of International Trade, issued a press release announcing Canada's participation, stating that it was "based on concerns expressed by Canadian stakeholders on a range of issues related to China's intellectual property rights regime."
Yet, according to dozens of internal Canadian government documents obtained under the Access to Information Act, Canadian officials, unable to amass credible evidence of harm to Canadian interests, harboured significant doubts about the wisdom of joining the case and ultimately did so only under the weight of great pressure from the United States.
the latest
latest episodes
David Emerson is a crook. He stole his constituency and portfolio by running as a Liberal in a lower income Liberal area and then switching parties to the Conservatives immediately after won his seat.
He is a Liar for Hire
"Liar for hire?" Isn't that the definition of a politician??
Good. If you've ever worked in any business in which design was a factor, you know that most (not all) Chinese manufacturers - including mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore - love nothing more than to rip off your hard work and make cheap knockoffs.
Yeah, but he was worse than many. I like how he pretended that his not running again had nothing to do with the simple fact that he had no friends left in the riding.
#3 - hurray for cheap knockoffs of needlessly overpriced crap!
We had a chip that was copied by the Chinese, and it cost millions to prosecute. In the end, without their cost to development a chip, they're still profitable even with the attorney fees. What then do they do? They 'rename' the chip, and import it as a different product. Again, it costs us millions to prosecute. China government doesn't care either, because it's good money for the people of china! Pirating, copyright infringement, etc., is very profitable.
In the end, all we can do is keep it (the currently named product) from coming into our borders (which equates to about 2 weeks before they rename it). Yet, they are still allowed to sell it everywhere else in the world.
Sounds like you need a more competitive chip development and fabrication business model that can prevail in an environment where reverse-engineering (and outright cloning) is commonplace.
Then again, without reverse-engineering we wouldn't have a personal computer industry to begin with. (Thanks Compaq!)
Open-source hardware exists competitively, including Sun's UltraSPARC T2 processor.
Emerson... yes his antics make him a clear contender for the Scum Among Scum Beanie. Couldn't he be sued for money damages the same way employees can be sued if they betray their employer for another businesses sake? Or are politicians not just immune to criminal law?
"You.. can't... hide... secrets from the future" MC Frontalot
When it comes to artistic content, the situation is even worse -- I am a big fan of Canadian tv and movies, my collection composed of $3 discs from the bottom of the Giant Tiger bargain bin, and stuff I've DVRed off SUNtv. At that, I don't have half the stuff I want -- Secret Railroad and Timothy Pilgrim for example are MIA legally or otherwise!
Canadians protecting their own content is a joke -- protecting American content instead seems beyond the pale!
I must say I enjoy living in a country that makes many of it's international realtions decisions under duress.
Do what we want or you lose 70% of your trade income.
Love it.