US Calls Out Piracy-Enabling Countries

[Cherry Cola]

The Trade Representative estimates 18 million American workers are affected by the piracy issues

I call immediate bullcrap.

They have no way of proving that. As so many people before me have stated, one pirated game does not equal a lost sale, and so they can't have created a statistic for how many workers are affected.

even if there's one single lost sale due to piracy, then that affects all the people in the game business and their stockholders (however slightly they may be affected)

so i see no problem in accepting that figure even if they are overdramatizing it.

I never saw it like that...

"We lost one sale! that means every single person in the game business now loses 0.000000001 dollar!"

Dear god, pirates are monsters...

 

[Funkysandwich]

Lol i feel your pain. Living in australia the average game costs $100 Australian dollars. Yet converted to american dollars we're paying $92 Usd for something thats worth $50.

same here in europe, we pay 60 euro for a game. that's about 90 dollars.

you shouldn't forget that americans don't pay taxes on games, so their games are generally cheaper. in my country, we have to pay 21% taxes on games. however, since the tax-rates are different in most european country, publishers set the price at about 40% and pay the taxes from those 40% (leaving some spare change for themselves).
I don't know if this is applicable on australian games though.

I know we get taxed 10% on virtually everything, but I think the extra money on top of that is just video game companies treating us like crap and knowing we'll pay for the games if we want them... Though Steam is great over here, same prices as the US and the exchange rate has been brilliant ever since the US invaded Iraq and the US economy hit the skids.

Come to think of it, if Canada don't start taking this piracy stuff seriously, they might be invaded by the US as well!

 

[twm1709]

Well, I'm from argentina. Part of the reason piracy is so rampant here is because prices are ridiculous as opposed to any other countries. To make a clear picture out of this. 1 videogame is around 120-150 U$S while the average salary is 400 U$S.
sure you can preach about the importance of "keeping it legal" but it only goes so far with most people. especially if pirate copies are sold almost EVERYWHERE and priced at less than 5 U$S.

 

[MrTub]

I'm surprised Sweden wasn't on the list... I mean, TPB's logo was even used in the news article

snip

snip

well it might be cause since USA started to whine the military/police is allowed to acces all internet trafic (includes norways internet trafic aswell since it go through sweden) (On 18 June 2008, Proposition 2006/07:63, "the FRA law", was accepted by the Parliament of Sweden (Riksdag), and accordingly FRA was given legal permission to tap communication cables passing the Swedish national borders. The law has been in effect since 1 January 2009. A large public opinion and many experts protested against the increased surveillance by demonstrating and using new media channels like blogs and web pages. Also, a number of members of parliament expressed their doubts towards the new law.)

 

[DamienHell]

LOL Canada is never getting anti-piracy laws. Our government has to do something to do that, and therefore too hard.

 

[The Hairminator]

I'm surprised Sweden wasn't on the list... I mean, TPB's logo was even used in the news article

snip

snip

well it might be cause since USA started to whine the military/police is allowed to acces all internet trafic (includes norways internet trafic aswell since it go through sweden) (On 18 June 2008, Proposition 2006/07:63, "the FRA law", was accepted by the Parliament of Sweden (Riksdag), and accordingly FRA was given legal permission to tap communication cables passing the Swedish national borders. The law has been in effect since 1 January 2009. A large public opinion and many experts protested against the increased surveillance by demonstrating and using new media channels like blogs and web pages. Also, a number of members of parliament expressed their doubts towards the new law.)

That law was not for catching pirates, as I recall, but merely for providing Interpol and the Swedish secret police with information from organized crime and terrorism (the latter is non-existent in Sweden).

 

[MrTub]

I'm surprised Sweden wasn't on the list... I mean, TPB's logo was even used in the news article

snip

snip

well it might be cause since USA started to whine the military/police is allowed to acces all internet trafic (includes norways internet trafic aswell since it go through sweden) (On 18 June 2008, Proposition 2006/07:63, "the FRA law", was accepted by the Parliament of Sweden (Riksdag), and accordingly FRA was given legal permission to tap communication cables passing the Swedish national borders. The law has been in effect since 1 January 2009. A large public opinion and many experts protested against the increased surveillance by demonstrating and using new media channels like blogs and web pages. Also, a number of members of parliament expressed their doubts towards the new law.)

That law was not for catching pirates, as I recall, but merely for providing Interpol and the Swedish secret police with information from organized crime and terrorism (the latter is non-existent in Sweden).

I can be wrong but what I heard is that police are allowed to request a judge to ask FRA to give out information if they suspect that somebody is uploading copyrighted data (but as I said I can be wrong)

 

[Steelfists]

And I call out the USA,Britain and Australia to be fascist states trying to steal the rights and freedoms of the worlds populaces by ensuring no one questions the absolute rights of copyright owners......

Actually, I believe that the UK (I can't speak for Australia) is just an American puppet/lap dog, rather than a co-conspirator.

Our government is just too feeble to stand up for itself and tell America where to go. If a political party (and not those damn BNP jerks) proclaimed they'd stop the country being so in awe of the US and stop following them around like a fool, then I'd vote for them.

Yes, because the UK government wants to protect billions of pounds in tax revenue and countless jobs in various entertainment industries they are America's lap dog. Think things through before you go on spouting a load of bullshit.

 

[The Hairminator]

I'm surprised Sweden wasn't on the list... I mean, TPB's logo was even used in the news article

snip

snip

well it might be cause since USA started to whine the military/police is allowed to acces all internet trafic (includes norways internet trafic aswell since it go through sweden) (On 18 June 2008, Proposition 2006/07:63, "the FRA law", was accepted by the Parliament of Sweden (Riksdag), and accordingly FRA was given legal permission to tap communication cables passing the Swedish national borders. The law has been in effect since 1 January 2009. A large public opinion and many experts protested against the increased surveillance by demonstrating and using new media channels like blogs and web pages. Also, a number of members of parliament expressed their doubts towards the new law.)

That law was not for catching pirates, as I recall, but merely for providing Interpol and the Swedish secret police with information from organized crime and terrorism (the latter is non-existent in Sweden).

I can be wrong but what I heard is that police are allowed to request a judge to ask FRA to give out information if they suspect that somebody is uploading copyrighted data (but as I said I can be wrong)

That's the IPRED law, where the Virtual Rights owner may request information about persons from internet providers. That law is complete bullshit, but fortunately it's not working very well, and the people it has brought down since activated last year can be counted on one hand.

 

[Aurora219]

And I call out the USA,Britain and Australia to be fascist states trying to steal the rights and freedoms of the worlds populaces by ensuring no one questions the absolute rights of copyright owners......

Actually, I believe that the UK (I can't speak for Australia) is just an American puppet/lap dog, rather than a co-conspirator.

Our government is just too feeble to stand up for itself and tell America where to go. If a political party (and not those damn BNP jerks) proclaimed they'd stop the country being so in awe of the US and stop following them around like a fool, then I'd vote for them.

Yes, because the UK government wants to protect billions of pounds in tax revenue and countless jobs in various entertainment industries they are America's lap dog. Think things through before you go on spouting a load of bullshit.

Whoa! Chill! I'm English, and I'm just tired of the Brits diving headlong into every war the US starts. It's not bullshit, it's opinion.

 

[Bretty]

I am American. But that is besides the point here. Here's an example at one of things I was implying.

http://internationaltrade.suite101.com/article.cfm/world_s_top_competitive_countries

If you take a look at that article Canada isn't doing all that well, granted it is a 2006 article and the world is still recovering from the economic problems we've had but still. The USA spends 150+ billion dollars per year on just defense and somehow we manage to keep taxes low. I live in New York and we pay 8% tax, the second highest in the union. Canadians who come here constantly complain about their 14% tax rate and constantly do everything possible to get out of paying it while crossing the border with US goods. So to say that your country is better run with a tax rate so high no one wants to pay it, shrinking economy and bloated budget is outright dumb. I?m not saying we Americans have a better system I?m saying that while the state that I live in is going bankrupt the politicians will NOT raise taxes any higher, they know it is political suicide. So they work around the already bloated budget of this state. Other states are doing a lot better than New York and we still have a tax rate of almost half that of Canadians. Your system isn't perfect, ours isn't but for some reason you pay almost double in taxes than I.

You do make a very good point. But there is a reason we get high taxes and there is a reason your country doesnt. Lets take Alabama for an example. Because their taxes are so low they couldn't afford to keep their emergency response or prisons going at normal levels (they were pretty much broke by this time) so instead of raising your taxes they cut.

If you have ever been you will also know that their roads (louisiana and Mississippi too) are just horrible, so many pot holes. But again they don't want to pay for them.... that would require taxes.

Also, something has to pay for our Medical and awesome utility costs.

Also, might I say that privacy rights in the US are just horrible. Police able to go into your house without whatever you call them, IP information being free for companies to see your activity.

We also don't have a large percentage of our nation shouting, in public, for the death of a president.....

I could go on man... really I could. The US is a great country. But not because of the way it is now but because of the way it was. Canada only seems to be getting better.

Financially we were sheltered from a lot of the banking crisis because of the way our banks our held. So financially we are just doing so much better than the US. Sorry man.

 

[7ru7h]

According to the <a href=http://www.ustr.gov/webfm_send/1906>"Special 301" report, Canada and China are among 11 countries on the Trade Representative's priority watch list for either failing to properly protect American IPs or actively block companies that employ copyright protection means.

READ: They aren't handling piracy the way we want (by giving the rights holders unlimited power, and caring fuckall about the consumers) so we are going to say that they promote it.

 

[Pokedude1013]

Fuck the US and the rich people that run that country.

Seriously, who the fuck are they to tell Canada what to do. We all know Canada is sooo much better run than the US.

Yes because Canada's government didn't shut itself down or anything recently because nobody could agree on anything. Wait.

Seriously even though I'm American I think this is a bullshit list for us to have.

At least my country doesn't ignore half of itself... by which I mean the south. How is New Orleans? Last time I checked your Gov't spent more money in Haiti than Louisiana. SO yeah your serve.

(Im from New Orleans)
New Orleans is good right now, we could certainly use the Army Corps of Engineers to strnegthen the levees but we learned a long time ago not to rely on the federal government anyway.

 

[7ru7h]

I love it. The US government as a mouthpiece for corpulent corporations built around obsolete business models.

If they are obsolete how can they still function?

Quite easily, just look at the Recording Industry. All they had to do was desperately cling to an obsolete business model, sue anyone they thought may have been infringing on their rights (kids, old people, dead people, people without computers), and lobby the fuck out of Congress to have them change the laws so they don't have to innovate while giving them more and more unneeded power over their rights.

 

[James Raynor]

I wish my country would stfu already.

 

[Brandon237]

Isn't this considered political bullying?

Because, rules apply to you when you are the superpower. Unfortunately, America has proven in the last decade that they do not plan to abide by the rules they expect everyone else to(illegal invasions etc.).

Yup, America is waaaay too hypocritical in its policies. Here in South Africa the general opinion of the US government is not a very kind one. I'll say only this as to political bullying: Russia has bigger nukes.