Senate Wants To Send US Copyright Cops To Foreign Countries

from the from-all-sides... dept

With the ProIP bill moving forward and trade representatives hard at work on an ACTA treaty to force customs agents to search for copyright violations at the border, Against Monopoly points out that Senators Max Baucus and Orrin Hatch have introduced a new bill having to do with intellectual property overseas. The bill would have the US Trade Representative draw up piracy “Priority Watch List,” allowing the White House take actions against countries that don’t get in line, including placing officials at foreign embassies with the sole purpose of enforcing US IP rights. Yup, that’s correct. The US may soon be sending copyright cops to other countries. This actually seems like a repeat of a bill introduced last year, but it still should worry other countries — especially when the US has a history of creating such priority watch lists of IP offenders in the past — and that list is usually laughable, in that it accuses countries that have much stricter copyright laws than the US itself.

Filed Under: , , ,

Rate this comment as insightful
Rate this comment as funny
You have rated this comment as insightful
You have rated this comment as funny
Flag this comment as abusive/trolling/spam
You have flagged this comment
The first word has already been claimed
The last word has already been claimed
Insightful Lightbulb icon Funny Laughing icon Abusive/trolling/spam Flag icon Insightful badge Lightbulb icon Funny badge Laughing icon Comments icon

Comments on “Senate Wants To Send US Copyright Cops To Foreign Countries”

Subscribe: RSS Leave a comment
12 Comments
NeoConBushSupporter says:

New World Order

This is the nature of the modern world. Modern international disagreements are mainly fought over “rule sets”. America is a lot like ROME, but unlike ROME, we do not demand tribute from other nations in the form of taxes, we demand that they subscribe to the same economic “rule set” we do. Considering this “New World Order”, I think this makes perfect sense? Isn’t this part of what we have been working the last 50 years achieve?

Craig says:

WMCI

It will be a new excuse to invade a country – Weapons of Mass Copyright Infringement. And like WMDs, they won’t have to prove anything so they can simply invade based on the assertion that there is overwhelming evidence as collected by Homeland Security at the Canadian border.

The US wants Canada’s hydroelectricity, oil and gas reserves, timber, and fresh water…I can practically see the US military lining up on the 49th parallel awaiting orders to pour across the border to protect the world from those Canadians who practice Copyright Terrorism. Then the resources will start flowing freely south (gives new meaning to “free trade”) so that we Canadians can’t use any of it to further our agenda of copyright infringement.

And if you don’t support the war against copyright terrorism, then you are unpatriotic and you don’t love the US and you are just as bad as those evil Canadians who live north of you.

Wait, Canada might be safe. If 20% of US citizens can’t find the USA on a world map, then there’s a greater probability that they won’t be able to find us! O Joy! O Bliss! O Rapture!

Geography FTW.

Norm (user link) says:

James Bond, where are you?

This looks like a task for a copyright secret agent hero. Send our fearless undercover operative to all corners of the globe, fighting the righteous battle for The Entertainment Cartel.

Or, perhaps we could contract the Mossad, to sneak into rogue copyright-infringing nations, kidnap the evil pirates, and bring them to justice in Hollywood. They did it with Nazis, why not copyright pirates?

Time to start checking the classifieds in Soldier of Fortune magazine. Ought to be lots of volunteers.

Add Your Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here

Comment Options:

Make this the or (get credits or sign in to see balance) what's this?

What's this?

Techdirt community members with Techdirt Credits can spotlight a comment as either the "First Word" or "Last Word" on a particular comment thread. Credits can be purchased at the Techdirt Insider Shop »

Follow Techdirt

Techdirt Daily Newsletter

Ctrl-Alt-Speech

A weekly news podcast from
Mike Masnick & Ben Whitelaw

Subscribe now to Ctrl-Alt-Speech »
Techdirt Deals
Techdirt Insider Discord
The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...
Loading...