Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Thu, 8 Dec 2011 11:43:48 PST Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111208/10480317011/details-sopapipa-alternative-released-with-open-requests-feedback.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111208/10480317011/details-sopapipa-alternative-released-with-open-requests-feedback.shtml KeepTheWebOpen.com, which is designed to encourage participation and feedback. Compare that to the backroom dealings behind PIPA and SOPA, where the industry folks helped craft the bill with no input whatsoever from those it would impact most. If only all bills were released this way...

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]]> check-it-out http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20111208/10480317011 Tue, 6 Dec 2011 12:38:39 PST Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111206/09551716990/as-expected-sopa-supporters-hate-more-reasonable-alternative.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111206/09551716990/as-expected-sopa-supporters-hate-more-reasonable-alternative.shtml an international trade issue. It still allows copyright and trademark holders to go after the worst of the worst -- which is exactly what the supporters of SOPA/PIPA claim they want. However, not surprisingly, the truth is coming out and they hate the new proposal.

Of course, this really proves the key point that many have been making. SOPA/PIPA have never been about taking down truly rogue sites. If so, supporters of those bills would embrace a proposal that really does focus on such sites. Instead, they're about very broad internet regulation that allows the entertainment industry to try to regain control over a market that they no longer control. The entertainment industry wants SOPA/PIPA because they don't know how -- or don't want to learn -- to innovate based on the internet today. So, instead, they're seeking regulations that basically let them attack anything they don't understand or don't control. When legislation comes along that narrowly focuses on the specific issue, it doesn't serve that purpose, so of course they hate it.

Still, it pretty much reveals their true views, to react so negatively to a plan that does what they claimed they wanted. It proves that's not what they wanted at all.

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]]> of-course-they-do http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20111206/09551716990 Thu, 1 Dec 2011 15:30:22 PST Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111201/12165616945/alternative-to-pipasopa-proposed-points-out-that-this-is-international-trade-issue.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111201/12165616945/alternative-to-pipasopa-proposed-points-out-that-this-is-international-trade-issue.shtml pretending that there are no alternatives beyond the insanity that is PIPA and SOPA, some in Congress have actually been hard at work on trying to think through the specific issues. And one key point has become clear: this isn't a law and order issue, but an international trade issue. Nearly all of the complaints are about the problem of "foreign" sites sending goods across the border into the US. So it makes absolutely no sense that this issue isn't under the purview of the Finance Committee, whose job it is to oversee international trade. Thus, a bill is being worked on that tackles the issues as an international trade issue. A "discussion draft" is being circulated on this (embedded below).

This new effort has bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate, and unlike SOPA and PIPA, seeks to try to focus in on situations that are actually problematic. In the Senate, it has the backing of Senators Cantwell, Moran, Paul, Warner and Wyden. All of whom had come out against PIPA, except for Warner. Adding him to this issue is big, given his experience in the business world. On the House side, it's Reps. Chaffetz, Campbell, Doggett, Eshoo, Issa and Lofgren. The focus would be putting the issue into the International Trade Commission, where there are experts focused on trade issues.

I think this is an approach that absolutely makes sense for counterfeit physical goods and the websites that sell them. Frankly, it's bizarre that it ever went beyond a discussion of international trade. It becomes somewhat trickier with copyright issues, and that's because you now have questions about how physical borders apply to digital networks. And I'm not sure I know how to best deal with that. Separately, having seen the ITC process on patents go off the rails at times, and become more of a way for patent holders to issue a "double whack" against a company they accuse of infringement, I'd be concerned about making sure that this process doesn't allow for two bites at the same apple. If it's properly focused on just foreign sites, that might not be as big an issue.

Either way, the devil will be in the details, but the details are still being written. Seeing as this is a discussion draft, I'm hearing that the folks involved really do want a discussion (unlike what we got with SOPA/PIPA), and that includes folks here. Take a look at the draft, and weigh in, knowing that some of the folks involved really will be reading what you have to say.

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]]> it-is-a-trade-issue,-isn't-it http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20111201/12165616945 Wed, 2 Jan 2008 08:35:00 PST Timothy Lee http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071228/104906.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071228/104906.shtml ongoing standoff between the US and the rest of the world at the World Trade Organization over gambling. When Congress banned online gambling, tiny Antigua filed a complaint alleging that the actions violated WTO rules. Antigua won, but the United States has so far bullied them out of taking advantage of their victory. The US has threatened to retaliate against Antigua if the latter begins targeting US copyrights as authorized in the trade ruling. James says that the United States is in the process of negotiating alternative compensation, including increased access to other American services markets. If that deal falls through, she warns, Hollywood might find itself "footing the bill" for the US government's ill-conceived gambling ban.

I certainly agree with her that the gambling ban was a bad idea, but I'm not sure it makes sense to paint Hollywood as an innocent victim here. After all, Hollywood has been pushing for decades to link trade policy and copyright law, going so far as to support free-trade agreements that include terms micro-managing other countries' copyright policies and requiring them to enact laws like the DMCA as a condition of access to American markets. Free traders rightly object when special interests try to use free trade agreements as a way to coerce countries into enacting their preferred labor and environmental policies. We should be equally incensed when Hollywood lobbies for the use of trade agreements to coerce countries into enacting their preferred copyright policies. So there's a certain amount of poetic justice in the fact that Hollywood has found its copyrights in the crosshairs of a trade dispute. James also correctly notes that retaliatory tarriffs are an insane way to impose damages on the losing country in a WTO dispute because tariffs hurt consumers in the "winning" country at the same time it hurts producers in the "losing" country. In contrast, if damages are imposed by targeting copyright law, consumers in the winning country will actually be made better off by lower prices for the copyrighted products in question. So while it would be best of Congress repealed its idiotic gambling ban, I'm not going too upset if Hollywood's attempts to link copyright law to trade policy come back to bite them.

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]]> poetic-justice http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20071228/104906 Mon, 6 Aug 2007 09:35:27 PDT Joseph Weisenthal http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070806/081143.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070806/081143.shtml slowing export growth from China and wondered what it meant about both the US and Chinese economies. Obviously, slower trade could be a reflection of a weakening economy, although it also seemed possible that the mounting concerns over the quality of Chinese goods could be a contributing factor. Today, the Wall Street Journal notes the same trend, but offers a much more sanguine perspective. The claim is that the Chinese government has instituted a new tax on exporters, which will kick in later this year. As such, manufacturers have tried to front-load their sales, squeezing as much of their annual orders out before the tax comes into place. The Chinese government has tried hard in recent years to slow down the economy, which has been on fire. While this tax may result in a temporary slowdown, it's unlikely that it will do much to alter the fundamental economic equation of high American demand for cheap supply from China.

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