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Ukraine Tries to Avoid U.S. Trade Restrictions 351

Posted by michael from the ph33r-us dept.
GMFTatsujin writes: "In response to the threat of US trade sanctions, the Ukraine parliament hastily passed an anti-piracy bill aimed at reducing the bootlegged CD problem. I especially liked this quote from this Wired article: '"We are deeply disappointed that Ukraine has not passed an effective law and instead is rushing through an ineffective law," said Eric Schwartz, vice president and special counsel of the International Intellectual Property Alliance." This is a follow-up to our story of two weeks ago about Ukraine not complying with U.S. demands for 'an optical media licensing regime.'
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Ukraine Tries to Avoid U.S. Trade Restrictions More

Ukraine Tries to Avoid U.S. Trade Restrictions

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  • As a former Soviet republic, doesn't the Ukraine have any nuclear weapons that they can use to argue away sanctions? And what's so important about CD piracy? We don't have trade sanctions on Taiwan or China or Russia, do we?
    • "Ukraine has launched 5 nuclear missiles towards the United States as a response to the sanctions"

      Software Pirates, look what you've done!

    • Re:former Soviet republic (Score:4, Informative)

      by TheBracket ( 307388 ) on Friday January 18, 2002 @02:07PM (#2863765) Homepage
      As a former Soviet republic, doesn't the Ukraine have any nuclear weapons that they can use to argue away sanctions?

      No, they don't. When the Ukraine seceded from the USSR, this was the #1 question from the rest of the world - and the US in particular. Initially, the Ukrainians thought that becoming a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty would mean that they agreed not to proliferate the sizeable nuclear arsenal situated on their soil; negotiation with the US (often quite heated - one of my professors at SMSU was involved in it and liked to talk about it at length!) and Russia left Russia the sole power in charge of the former Soviet nuclear arsenal.

      That's not to say that they might have kept one or two warheads lying around, but if they have any, it is a relatively trivial number - and probably of the tactical variety, primarily intended to maintain their independence from Russia.

    • As a former Soviet republic, doesn't the Ukraine have any nuclear weapons that they can use to argue away sanctions?

      No.

      HTH [day.kiev.ua]

      On October 30, the last Ukrainian ICBM silo for rockets called RS-22 here or SS-24 in the West and located near Pervomaisk in Mykolayiv oblast was destroyed. In so doing, Ukraine has fully met its commitments to the world community envisaged by the Lisbon Protocol to the SALT- 1 treaty. Under the protocol, Ukraine signed on the SALT-1 treaty and also, now as a non- nuclear state, joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

      P.S. Why do people deliberately evince their ignorance of current events in the pursuit of karma? Is a Google search really that hard?

      • A google search would require me to interface with a database. A slashdot post allows me to interface with people. I tend to get far more interesting responses by posting to slashdot, and they're all prefiltered too!
  • who has a problem with the phrase "optical media licensing regime"?

    US Gov't-sponsored monopolistic behavior anyone?
    • Nope, the moment read that, I envisioned some sort of RIAA nazi germany.

      Lackey:"gutentag! Ze pitiful ukranians vill fall before us now!"

      Adolf Spears:"Excellent. Vill zey get avay vith pirating our CDs? NEIN!"

      Lackey:"Heil Spears! Heil Spears!"

      Just a humorous fantasy. It'd be best if you simply ignored it. :)

  • Original mistake.. (Score:2, Funny)

    by Axe ( 11122 )
    ..I guess their first mistake was to give up all those nukes.. ;-)) Now gotta play by the rules..
  • Surely the US can show the Ukraine how this will benefit their economy as well. Think of how many millions of dollars (rubles?) are lost due to the 'pirating' of Ukrainian pop music in China. I wonder what percentage of their GDP '99 Luftballoons' accounts for...

  • Pointless (Score:4, Insightful)

    by jmkaza ( 173878 ) on Friday January 18, 2002 @12:40PM (#2863179)
    This law, or any law the Ukraine makes on CD piracy, is a law on paper only. The gov't is more concerned with supplying food and utilities to their people than whether the RIAA is going to receive their profits. To place trade sanctions on a country because they're harboring terrorists or committing genocide is one thing, to deny a country supplies because they might sell the CD's they burn is absurd.

    • Re:Pointless (Score:3, Insightful)

      by SirSlud ( 67381 )
      It's not absurd, it's business as usual for the States. They embargo'd Iraq at a time where people could not afford food. Sadam just built his own secret pipeline and went off to sell more oil while the innocents starved. It's been said a million times before, but unfortuanetly, at the end of the day, countries are out for themselves. Whether or not the US is helping it's own cause here is up for debate, but that doesn't change the enormity of US economic might and leverage. They have the power to do shit like this, so they do, plain and simple.

      • Re:Pointless (Score:2, Insightful)

        by palewhitemale ( 515709 )
        not only is it pointless from a foreign policy point of view, but it is goddamn ridiculous. Having family in the on the administrative level of the record industry (with a major, unnamed label)I've heard the numbers that they've "lost in revenue" because of "illegal" uses of CDs. I say F 'em, the artists and execs are going to have to live without a christmas bonus...on their tiny (ha) salaries until they realize that we will always be able to figure out how to copy their media. Hmmm...I'll suggest it here too...maybe the answer is CDs for less than 15 dollars?
        Pale

    • Re:Pointless (Score:2, Informative)

      by vample ( 30259 )
      > This law, or any law the Ukraine makes on CD piracy, is a law on paper only.

      As are most Ukrainian laws, as the level of corruption there is insane.

      > The gov't is more concerned with supplying

      > food and utilities to their people

      No, they are more concerned with murdering journalists [bbc.co.uk] and lining their pockets with bribes from those running the CD piracy industry.

      > deny a country supplies

      They're imposing a tarrif on exports, not denying imports.

      Most Ukrainians cant afford many imported goods to begin with since their so expensive compared to the local economy. Many grow their own vegetables in their gardens, they dont import them from Europe.

      • No, the USA (and at our command, most of the other countries that do trade with the Ukraine) is refusing to buy exports from Ukraine, which acounts for half of their national product.

        Listed in the article were steel and shoes, aparently two of the larger exports.

  • so? (Score:4, Informative)

    by ekephart ( 256467 ) on Friday January 18, 2002 @12:41PM (#2863191) Homepage
    It's not like the US plays by the rules either. 1 [bbc.co.uk]. 2 [washingtonpost.com].
  • From the Wired article:

    Music and other CDs that sell for more than $15 in Western Europe cost about $3 for a pirated copy in the capital Kiev.

    Now, if CD's were a little cheaper, there'd be less incentive to pirate. This is testimony to the inefficient distribution model in place today for the music industry. A lot of hands in the till, as they say.

    • This doesn't follow, as $3 in Ukraine is quite high. From Central Europe Review [ce-review.org]:

      According to the results of a sociological survey conducted by the State Statistical Committee in May no more than 50 percent of the Ukrainian population have enough money to buy food.
      The average salary of the Ukrainian employees in the production sector is UAH 213 (around USD 39).

      I'm not surprised that Ukrainians don't want to spend almost half their daily salary on a CD. And remember, those are just the ones with steady jobs (also a rarity in .ua).

  • Democracy's good, unless it's not ours (Score:4, Interesting)

    by SetarconeX ( 160251 ) on Friday January 18, 2002 @12:42PM (#2863197)
    I'm deeply offended at this. The U.S. government is punishing an entire nation for the actions of it's democratically elected government. It's not like there's a group of radicals forcing the Ukrainian people to pirate CD's...the decision to not follow US demands was made consciously and rationally by that country's ruling bodies.

    The U.S. just happened to decide that our laws are better than their laws....and forced them to follow ours.
    • Well, you know, I wouldn't think too highly of Ukraina's government, and RIAA was probably right in one thing they said in their response to Gilmore the last time this was posted: This has nothing to do with bravery, and a lot to do with corruption.

      That being said, I find the thought that every media has a serial number scary and is traceable. Very scary, because it pretty much makes it impossible to be an anonymous whistle-blower, on that media. You can still use paper, unless you copy it on a color copier, you might be able to use old-style film, but say you have a video clip, and you want to distribute it on CDs, you can't do that.

      And what Ukraina needs are definitely more anonymous whistle-blowers.

    • oh, come on (Score:3, Insightful)

      by hawk ( 1151 )
      Noone's forcing anyone to do anything.


      Free Trade between nations is a fairly recent thing (and a good idea, but that's another issue). The U.S. is telling Ukraine that unless Ukraine behaves in the modern manner (not pirating intellectual property), the U.S. will not allow Ukrain to make some of its export wihout or with low tarriff, but instead must pay tarriffs (as has been traditionally required). That's it.


      That tariffs hurt the receiving country more then the shipping country, or at least more than is collected, is another economics issue entirely :)


      hawk

  • [among other things]

    Of course the US is raising the tariff on oil imported from Ukraina. Neither Bush nor Cheney own any wells over there.

    [-1: Cheap shot]

  • Well of course! (Score:5, Funny)

    by FunkSoulBrother ( 140893 ) on Friday January 18, 2002 @12:42PM (#2863201)
    Of course we need to restrict the Ukraine, otherwise the Red team will be able to connect its European horde with its ten-army piece in the Ural Mountains!

  • Why should they? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by BTWR ( 540147 ) <americangibor3NO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Friday January 18, 2002 @12:42PM (#2863202) Homepage Journal
    "We are deeply disappointed that Ukraine has not passed an effective law and instead is rushing through an ineffective law,"

    What motivation does the Ukranian goverment have to implement, and assign funds to appropriate the policing of such a bill? There has to be some motivation here. Do you really think that Pakistani President Musharraf wants to help America out of the goodness of his heart? No! While I do commend his help, he really does this so that he gets financial aid and lifted sanctions.

    So I ask again, why should Ukraine support this? It gives its poor citizens cheap goods so that they can buy other necessities (food, vodka). Not that it's right, just that people don't necessarily care. Such questions must be addressed, and I'd be interested to know how the Slashdot communities' theories are in how to motivate countries like Ukraine, China, etc (where pirating is rampant) to put a halt to it?
  • I think that he is probably one of the best people to talk about hastily rushed-through anti-piracy bills. In fact, I'd say he was an expert in this field.

  • And still, Americans continue to ask... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by kitts ( 545683 ) on Friday January 18, 2002 @12:43PM (#2863216) Homepage
    ... "Why do they hate us so much?"

    • Re:And still, Americans continue to ask... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Sj0 ( 472011 ) on Friday January 18, 2002 @01:45PM (#2863628) Journal
      Not only that, but then when we tell them, they'll point at some other country we hate and tell us that it's okay because they are doing it too.

      A:"Why do you hate us so much?"

      SJ:"your country routinely disregards human life in favour of petty economic interests, and tends to disregard laws, both it's own, and international laws as well."

      A:"So does China and Iraq!"

      Seriously, read just about any "Here is why we hate America" chat, and this will happen. It's happened on slashdot quite a few times in recent memory.
    • ... "Why do they hate us so much?"

      Wrong!
      People love the US so much they are dying [cnn.com] to get into it.

      Maybe people treat you badly when you travel, but I suspect your ill treatment has nothing to do with your nationality.

  • Does this advance US geopolitical interests? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Two Dogs Fucking ( 550946 ) on Friday January 18, 2002 @12:44PM (#2863217) Homepage
    All of Asia is practically floating on pirated music, video, and software. You can buy pretty much any software app ever written for barely above the price of the media.

    So does the US impose sanctions on every nation that refuses to dance to the RIAA/MPAA's tune? At what point does this become counter-productive for a country that's also currently trying to keep an anti-terror coalition together?

  • The US is a hypocrite (Score:3, Interesting)

    by argoff ( 142580 ) on Friday January 18, 2002 @12:45PM (#2863221)

    The fact is that the US has a lot of balls trying to impose these restrictions overseas when in fact they cant even do a good job of copyright enforcement at home. Why? Because Americans know it's a bullshit property right, and don't have one bit of guilt about copying freely. How many millions of illegal coppies did napster propigate? I bet you anything that it wasn't the Ukrane doing all those downloads.

    • That's not really the whole story. In the Ukraine there are lots of major piracy organizations that make very good copies of CD's, pressed and printed to look real, because they practically are. You can buy and computer game or CD you want for $2. That is why the MS and Nintendo care so much about copy protection, because there are major groups out there who will do it so well you don't even notice. It isn't just about making burned CD's and MP3's there, it is about people getting together in an organizaed fashion and completly undercutting the original sellers with copies so good, you would have to feel very guilty to buy the real version, and prices so low, why even try to burn copies yourself. They appear in stores and on streets just as you might go to Circuit City and buy them, and are more common then the real versions. The Ukraine is a piracy haven. I don't think what is happening to them is right by any means, but piracy is about as bad there as it could conceivably get, so the US is not even on the same level.

  • Has anyone been there recently? (Score:4, Informative)

    by swagr ( 244747 ) on Friday January 18, 2002 @12:45PM (#2863230) Homepage
    I'm of Ukrainian decent, and I have friends and family that have been there recently.

    A friend had to pay off cops to avoid getting beaten up because his Canadian passport wasn't in Ukrainian. A priest I know was stopped right off the plane at customs and had to pay $500 to get through.

    The country is corrupt and falling appart. Who is going to enforce this law?
    • I wouldn't reply, but the parent post was moderated as "informative", which is not exactly the case.

      Yes, you're right, the country is corrupt, however:

      1) Believe me, nobody gets beaten up by cops there just because his passport is Canadian. It's a reasonably safe country for foreigners. Please make yourself a favor and visit Kiev. The city is beautiful, the restaurants are excellent, ukrainian girls are lovely. Plus, _any_ software and music CD is $2 per disk, but you already know this :)

      2) $500 is way too much. If you're following custom regulations, you have nothing to fear, at all. Last time I had 10 packs of certain rare medicine on me which they said is too much. I paid $20 and the custom officer was happy to let me through. I just can't imagine what your priest was carrying to pay $500... Machine gun, maybe? :)
  • "We are deeply disappointed that Ukraine has not passed an effective law and instead is rushing through an ineffective law."

    "Ukraine's legislature is crafting its own law rather than rubber-stamping the one we provided."

  • not the US - it's the RIAA (Score:4, Insightful)

    by mark_lybarger ( 199098 ) on Friday January 18, 2002 @12:47PM (#2863241)
    the US gov't isn't the backbone of this whole manipulation, it's the RIAA (and the international IP association). the US gov't is just doing it's usual job by taking lots of money from the lobby. someone's gotta snag those mo-fo's into some quake action and show 'um what fraggin is all about.

    • It is both (Score:2, Informative)

      by taj ( 32429 )
      Just yesterday the US government tried to remove the FCC from the decision process with respect to mega media corp mergers. Why?

      1) giant media companies need FCC approval prior to mergers.
      2) The FCC tends to be very critical of such moves.
      3) The only remaining regulation is the DOJ and any mega media company can own that as long as the president gets some nice toys for being good.

      Was this on TV? No. Why? What mega media company would cover their own dirt? *think* Maybe the problem is already showing :)

      It was on NPR though. Dirty politics at its best. I wonder which elected people put a stop to it.

      They served their country well. Even while on recess.

      If anyone has a link to the details please share it. I just heard it while driving around town.
    • Eh? Since when has the RIAA had enough clout to impose trade sanctions on another country?

      U.S. Govt: "But they told me to do it"

      U.S. Govt's Mother: "If they told you to jump off a cliff..."

  • instead is rushing through an ineffective law



    Right; Ukraine should take their time and do it right. What's the hurry?

  • Freedom of the Press (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Rupert ( 28001 ) on Friday January 18, 2002 @12:49PM (#2863258) Homepage Journal
    Hats off to the Ukrainian deputies who rejected the idea of requiring a licence to press CDs. I'm sure the US Congress would not show as much backbone.

  • it's going to be really hard to stop (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MoceanWorker ( 232487 ) on Friday January 18, 2002 @12:54PM (#2863300) Homepage
    I have a bunch of friends and relatives back in Russia and my father actively travels to Russia and the Ukraine for business... even 3-4 years ago when Bill Gates asked Russia to stop selling pirated copies of Windows 9x/NT.. Russia couldn't really do anything about it, except order a military tank to drive over a bunch of pirated CDs they collected, to destroy it... an interesting, yet ineffective solution

    friends and relatives in Russia still tell me that when they go to flea markets, people still sell pirated software at a ridiculously low price... this goes for audio CDs as well and even hardware...

    so in conclusion, if Russia claimed to have "stopped" people from selling pirated software, is Ukraine going to approach the same matter? just do a thing or 2 about the whole situation then tell the US... "ok we're done, now lift the sanctions please"

  • IFPI? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mliu ( 85608 ) on Friday January 18, 2002 @12:57PM (#2863325) Homepage
    "But the London-based International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, or IFPI, which represents the international recording industry, said Ukraine had missed its "last opportunity to avoid ... U.S. trade sanctions.""

    Seems kind of strange that a London based recording industry group that I have never even heard of here in the US appears to be bandying around the threats of United States trade sanctions.

    Between them and the RIAA and MPAA it's like the freakin' Brotherhood of Evil or something........

  • Thankful for Ukrainian CD's (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I've seen Ukrainian CD's for sale of material that the U.S. music companies no longer sell at all. If the U.S. companies are too lazy to bother to sell the music, they shouldn't complain at all when the Ukraine steps in to fill the demand.

  • Honestly, considering the fact that the Ukraine and other parts of the Old Soviet Union are so poor... I'd say the only Cds that they are going to be burning are the ones to keep their homes warm. IF (and this is the big one), and I mean IF they can even get optical media.

    Besides, what does a computer with a burner cost these days... three years average Russian salary? More for the Ukraine? Honestly, these people cannot afford the wholesale piracy that they say is happening.

    This is B.S. hardball. After all, what is the consequence of letting them burn? More Russians singing pop songs in broken English?

    Think if you were the Ukrainian authorities... and you really, really, really, need capital. This is not even a concern to you. Some foreign country starts yammering about CD copyrights? YOU'VE GOT STARVING PEOPLE. THE BEST OFF LOOK LIKE THE POOREST IN THE REST OF THE WESTERN WORLD. I am a US patriot, but I would tell them to go pick a bigger issue to restrict my trade over.
  • Have you visited International Intellectual Property Alliance [iipa.com]? This is scary shit. This is no international organisation, this is a organisation created by likes of RIAA, MPAA, IDSA, BSA and AAP, all very much concerned about 'piracy' and 'copyright infringement'. Just 2 examples from their milestone [iipa.com] page:
    In 1984, the U.S. copyright industries pressed the Congress to make ineffective IPR protection an "unfair trade practice" under Section 301 of the U.S. trade law. Congress made this and other similar changes which marked the first time IPR protection was made part of the U.S. trade agenda.

    At the conclusion of the Uruguay Round, a new chapter on intellectual property rights, the TRIPS Agreement, was included for the first time ever in a global trade instrument.

  • globalization (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mliu ( 85608 ) on Friday January 18, 2002 @01:12PM (#2863422) Homepage
    You know, I've always been kinda sketched out about those anti-WTO anti-globalization protestors who tear up cities everytime a trade meeting is held. They claim that these globalizing organizations just make the poorer countries and peoples even poorer and more destitute, and all to serve the selfish interests of a few powerful Western corporations. I wasn't sure how much I believed that, I was kind of undecided about the issue, but it doesn't get much more cut and dry than this.

    We have a starving nation and people who are the poorest of the poor. And we are imposing trade sanctions (where trade sanctions are starting to seem inhumane even against the likes of Fidel Castro's and Saddam Hussein's regimes) against these people. And for what? To protect the interests of Western intellectual property companies? It's hard to imagine that these sanctions won't fail to cause at least one more starvation death among the poor masses that live in the Ukraine, and it really does seem like what the anti-globalization people have been saying all along is coming true. Apparently Western corporate profits really are more important than 3rd world lives to those who are currently in power.

    • Western Profits are much more important than Life (Score:5, Insightful)

      by FreeUser ( 11483 ) on Friday January 18, 2002 @01:27PM (#2863501)
      Apparently Western corporate profits really are more important than 3rd world lives to those who are currently in power.

      This is exactly the ethos our government has been subscribing to, openly since the Reagan era of the 1980's and perhaps much longer than that.

      It isn't just "third world" lives, either. American profits are deemed much more important than American lives (e.g. Mansanto deliberately polluting an American town's groundwater as recently as a few short years ago, killing many people, maiming many more, and not a single board member, employee, or shareholder will ever see the inside of a jail cell).

      We made a conscious choice as a society to subscribe to a system which values wealth above everything else, and rewards greed above every other character trait. Worse, we've decided corporations are to be treated as people, with all of their rights and none of their responsibilities, exacerbating an already poor cultural choice.

      Is it really any surprise at all that the natural consiquence of such a system, based upon such a skewed ethical premise, is that Corporate Profits are considered to be vastly more important the human lives?
    • If the sanctions are as bad as you say, then why would a rational country not do something about the problem?

      Russia has made is much harder to be a pirate in recent years. The Ukranians speak with fear about the situation there. (I was just in Kiev a few days ago so I know of what I speak.) The problem is, like it or not, you can't have free trade with piracy. Criminal activity is something that cannot be tolerated.

      The things the Ukranians need to do are not burdensom. The problem is the government is run by corrupt leaders (some who may be involved in murder, for example). This is another reason not to give them handout money. It is time the U.S. stopped supporting the bad guys - it only encourages more international lawlessness. The Ukranian government can stop this piracy easily. Sure they will not get it all and some of it will go underground. The US has underground piracy rings too.

      What the corporations need to do to combat this is control their prices. For example if a package costs $3000US they must expect to sell it for $300US in poorer countries like Ukraine. In fact it should be part of the trade agreement. Otherwise you put the software out of the reach of the Ukranians and they are then forced to resort to piracy.
  • Who stands in a position to actually say "Hey, you gotta tell your citizens how they're allowed to listen to stuff or WE^H^HI won't let them listen to it." I'm a US citizen, and the theory is that I have a say in this. And I suspect most people really aren't interested in pushing for this sort of thing - so why is it there?

  • A doze of reality (Score:2, Informative)

    by kurtkilgor ( 99389 )
    For people of Russian descent (I am one), the concept of purchasing music and software hasn't existed for some time. The RIAA's idea that recorded music can be controlled is the result of obedient Americans (and possibly Western Europeans).

    In the Soviet Union, we always used to copy all types of recordings onto tape. This is still done by Russian immigrants in the US (and by many others, I'm sure). The RIAA thinks that because CDs are better, people would never copy them onto tapes. Well, the small loss of quality is negligible compared to having a chance to listen to the music in the first place.

    I visited St.Petersburg, Russia recently. The underground walks that lead to the subway stations are lined with kiosks selling all sorts of magazines, medicine, etc, but mostly CDs. There must be tens of thousands of CDs in total at any single station. These kiosks are 100% legal.

    The CDs? Collections of every type of software imaginable, collections of music (such as every song ever released by U2 on one CD), etc. They go for a few dollars apiece (*30 for rubles). Most Russians can't afford to spend thousands of dollars on software or hundreds of dollars on music. Thus the pirate CD industry for them fulfills an essential market.

    Furthermore, these CDs then get imported into the US where they fulfill the same exact market. There aren't too many people who can afford to spend $20 on a CD for every singer they want to listen to.

    Are they wrong to do this? I personally would say that the artists and software companies benefit, since for them this is free publicity. It is the companies' own fault that they charge unreasonable prices for their products that these people could never afford to pay anyway.
  • But someone has got to ask the obvious. Is anyone playing devils advocite in DC?

    What happens if a large chunk the embargoed countries start there own UN, world bank and WTO? It wouldn't get anywhere if Iraq joined up but it might with say China,the Ukraine and Russia on board for starters.

    Isn't our trade policy putting us at millitary and financial risk. A unified world can still kick our ass at war and maybe even trade.

  • This sounds like the Boston Tea Party (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ahde ( 95143 ) on Friday January 18, 2002 @02:41PM (#2863949) Homepage
    In 1775 another country was trying to impose its laws in the interest of an oligarchy of corporations monopolizing luxury items.

  • Wait a minute... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Uttles ( 324447 ) <uttles.gmail@com> on Friday January 18, 2002 @02:45PM (#2863967) Homepage Journal
    Has the US passed a law that effectively reduces CD bootlegging?

    Sure, they have the laws, but everyone and their brother seems to be pumping out MP3 based cd's these days.
  • I hope the Ukranians and the rest of the world realize that many Americans do not support the actions of our government and its sponsoring corporations. We live under an oppressive regime that is, at present, focusing more of its energies on oppressing foreign nations, instead of its own citizens.
  • U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick has warned that failure to address the piracy problem could jeopardize Ukraine's hope of entering the World Trade Organization this year.
    The fact is that it is already illegal in the Ukraine to copy CDs without permission from the copyright holder. What the recording industry wants them to do is to ban the manufacture and sale of CDs that haven't been properly registered with the government. If the Ukrainian government fails to restrict this trade, they will receive punative trade sanctions and be kept out of the World Tade Organization.

    At the same time, we are supposed to believe that the WTO is all about "Free Trade". Clearly, the WTO is for "Free Trade" in the sense that it is against people democratically limiting the rights of large corporations, but when it comes to people democratically refusing to restrict the rights of people despite threats from large corporations, the WTO again sides with the large corporations.

    It kinda makes you think maybe they are really just for large corporations. And "free" trade isn't really "free" as in beer or "free" as in speech. It's more "free" as in "do as you're told and you won't get this nightstick rammed up your ass".

  • "We are deeply disappointed that Ukraine has not passed an effective law and instead is rushing through an ineffective law," said Eric Schwartz

    A law by itself, is rarely effective. It's the enforcement of the law that can make things work. Sure, 20 laws on anti-piracy measures can pass in any given country, I am just wondering how would they go around about enforcing them and actually making them work.

  • I was just in Kiev for the past two weeks. Intellectual Property as a concept is non-existant in Ukraine. The bazars are filled with every imaginable piece of software on CD-ROM at the stunningly low price of 10 grivnas (about $1.80US) for everything. A CD my have Lightwave, 3D-Studio Max and other software or it might just have one piece. Either way it costs the same.

    I bought "The Lord of the Rings" on VHS for my brother as a gag gift. It is in PAL and also in Russian so he can't play it and if he did he couldn't understand it. I did watch it while I was there and the translation was horrible. The title was translated as "Owner of the Ring"! and the translator not only translated the dialog, he gave commentary!!!

    Ukraine was receiving $82 million a year in aid. Because of their very backward stance on Intellectual Property (sorry Stallman fans, IP is an important cornerstone to any advanced socieity) and also because of terrible corruption in the government (they suppress the free press by threatening the printing pressesses and by assasinating some journalists among other evils) it has been lowered to just $52 million a year. A big jump. However there is no reason why, as a US citizen, my tax dollars should go to Ukranians. I think if their government was more responsible I would be very glad to see some of my money flow into it.

    The situation in Ukraine is a good one. They are getting their economy back on track -- they just need to come into the 21st century with respect for IP and the government needs to be more responsible. I loved the people there and I liked Kiev a lot. The worst thing I can say about it is that the water is totally tainted with giardia (I witnessed this first hand unfortunately).

    P.S. : Don't try and smuggle back CD's or VHS tapes like I did. I found out you risk imprisonment and fines that are outrageous.

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When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle. - Edmund Burke

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