It’s not a war. They think they’ve won. It’s an insidious and highly successful on the part of US and to a lesser degree the EU IP (patent, trademark, copyright) rights holders to secure a hold on a world economy filled with things it no longer makes or consumes. This is particularly important now that their banking hold has tanked. It’s being done through, get this, the World Customs Organization, because it’s so little known that the other countries, who have managed to assert themselves first through WIPO and then through WTO, were taken by surprise. And even if they hear of it “it’s secret”. The gist: to make customs officials around the world responsible for searching travellers for allegedly infringing items, from downloads to handbags. For an insight into the mentality and to see what’s next, here’s an interesting quote from a recent article in IP Watch (US IP Attachés Take Hard-Line Position On Overseas IP Enforcement, Posted by William New):
In October, US Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue announced that the GIPC, which had previously been focused on counterfeiters, would rise to the challenge of what the chamber characterised as a “second threat [from] a growing movement of anti-IP activists drawn from universities, foundations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), ideologically driven interest groups, and even governments.” Maybe it is a war after all…

So sorry for the grammar mistakes – I was hasty. Let’s watch what President Obama does – his secretary of agriculture is rumored to have strong Monsanto ties (see films ‘World According to Monsanto’, ‘The Future of Food’ , and ‘Patent for a Pig’ – all on google video) and the copyright people are lobbying for all they’re worth. OK, it is war.