On the other hand, the proposed rules could easily lead to ripping of copyright holders. The committee and the senators were only concerned with the US, disregarding the fact that the world is larger than the US alone. It only takes a little twisting to read their recommendations as "you can do anything you want, as long as the copyright holder is not a US citizen."

This is the view that most countries in the world hold towards copyrighted material from other countries. So-called international copyright laws are basically ignored throughout southeast Asia, for example. In places like Africa copyright laws might as well not even exist.

Ideas about "international copyright law" basically apply to Western nations. And even there: it's iffy at best. An awful lot of movies and music which haven't been specifically (officially) imported & licensed in other countries are often regarded as fair game for duplication & marketing without permission. There are some very popular video distribution companies in the US which have operated legally for years -- selling video copies of unreleased European & Asian movies.

But the favor is more than returned to us -- in spades. Many major-release US movies aren't even in the theatres before bootleg copies of them can be found all over the world -- and for download on the internet. And don't even mention our music industry; and what's done to them on a regular basis.

So the concept is not at all out of the ordinary. It's already happening that way: and it has been happening that way for a very long time. All that the politicians are doing is thinking about making it official: by clarifying the law.

Then they can probably follow this by figuring out a better way to impose tariff fees or some such on what are actually pirated materials.

I'm not saying that any of this is right; nor am I advocating such behavior. But I AM saying that what's fair is fair.

Take a trip to southeast Asia. You can buy any American film that you like on the streetcorners. Dirt cheap. And while you are at it, you can pick up a Chinese-made copy of Microsoft Windows XP, too........

In this regard I agree with the moron statement by BARTWORX

So do I. Because we have government officials who have taken far too long to address what is obviously an untenable situation vis-a-vis the often farcical (and utterly unenforceable) international copyright laws.

@PJF ---

I'd never dream of calling you a 'Mr. Klaxon' for pointing out what is clearly a government rip-off like the TV tax.

We could get into a drawn-out argument about why European nations enjoy such fancy unfairnesses........but the open debate of politics is a forum no-no.

I'll just say this much: over the years, I've had the pleasure of working closely with Europeans from many countries -- as well as people from other parts of the world. I have some very close German friends as a result.

Almost without exception -- after the Germans whcih I've known had an opportunity to live & work in the US for over a year (or for several years in some cases) -- then the VERY LAST thing that they wanted to do was to go back to Germany......they weren't happy about having to leave the US, let me tell you. They wanted to stay here in the worst way. But, international law being what it is -- and they being law-abiding -- they had to go back.

I was very sorry to see them go. But some of them are trying to get back over here to the US -- and I hope that they make it.

There's something addicting about freedom -- TRUE freedom. Although we've got more than our share of bureaucratic nonsense going on over here, too. Unfortunately. Message edited on: 03/06/2006 14:00

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