IIPA Wants Canada on Priority Watch List for Piracy
The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) has recommended to U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab that 14 countries be added to a Priority Watch List for piracy, including Canada. This list is reserved for countries that are infected with high levels of copyright piracy, and/or deny effective market access to copyright industries. China and Russia remain the Alliance’s main concerns.
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The report pegged Canada as a leading manufacturer and exporter of bootlegged movies, and illegal devices that facilitate pirated activity, like “modification chips” used to allow counterfeit games to be played on videogame consoles. In fact, it names the unauthorized camcording issue in Canada as nearing “crisis” levels: in 2006, 20-25 per cent of pirated DVDs discovered were sourced back to Canada! Highly “guilty” regions for piracy include Vancouver/Richmond, BC; Calgary, AB; Toronto/Markham, ON; and Montreal, QC.
I think this is bad news for all of us. American interests are painting us as a rogue state who defies U.S. foreign policy, plus we have oil. We all know what happens to rogue states who have large oil reserves...
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Canada joins the Axis of Evil
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2 comments:
I was not aware that Calgary was such a hotbed of piracy. Montreal gets all the play in the news. Apparently New York State made it unattractive to practice piracy there, so the pirates moved a bit north, which had the bonus of providing access to two languages. If Hollywood and Silicon Valley had more power (and tanks), we would indeed be in dire straits. It may be that our oil will save us, at least for a while. However, with North Korea in the process of making its way off the axis list, another country may be needed to keep up the fear numbers. If W softens on his intention to invade Iran, though, we may be more at risk. I have begun to think of W's interest in attacking Iran as analogous to the dot com boom when firms said they were losing money on every transaction but were making it up in volume.
All your base are belong to us!
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