Special Report 301 (2014)
30 апреля 2014 года Торговое представительство США (USTR) выпустило новый «Специальный отчет 301». Среди главных изменений — исключение Украины, Италии и Филиппин из списка основных нарушителей прав интеллектуальной собственности. В 2014 году 10 стран находятся в Priority Watch List, Россия в частности, и 27 стран в Watch List. Ряд стран, включая Чили, Китай, Индию, Индонезию, Таиланд и Турцию, публикуются в отчете каждый год с даты его первой публикации в 1989 году.
Who publishes the report? What is Special Report 301?
The author of "Special Report 301" is the United States Trade Representative (hereinafter referred to as USTR ) - a US government agency established in 1962 that develops trade laws, draws up bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, and coordinates US foreign trade policy. It is part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States.
Special Report 301 is an annual report listing countries that do not provide adequate and effective legal protection of intellectual property, according to USTR.
For 25 years now, “Special Report 301” has been annually published, the first report was called “Fact Sheet” and contained a list of 25 trading partners - 8 on the Priority Watch List and 17 on the Watch List.
The Priority Watch List is defined by the USTR as “countries with serious intellectual property rights deficiencies,” “requiring increased attention from the USTR.” In turn, the Watch List is defined by the USTR as “countries with serious intellectual property rights deficiencies, but they have not yet been published on the Priority Watch List,” an analogue of the yellow football card. USTR can move countries from one list to another, add or remove them from the report at all.
Who made the list of major pirates in Special Report 301 in 2014?
Priority Watch List: Algeria; Argentina; Chile; China; India; Indonesia; Pakistan; Russia; Thailand; Venezuela.
Watch List: Barbados; Belarus; Bolivia; Brazil; Bulgaria; Canada; Colombia; Costa Rica Dominican Republic; Ecuador; Egypt; Finland; Greece; Guatemala; Jamaica; Kuwait; Lebanon; Mexico; Paraguay; Peru; Romania; Tajikistan; Trinidad and Tobago; Turkey; Turkmenistan; Uzbekistan Vietnam.
Internet piracy through the eyes of the USTR.
Increasing Access to Broadband Internet Connections Worldwide
a lot of advantages, from increasing economic activity and the formation of new business models to more free access to information and its exchange. However, the USTR considers the same phenomenon to be an extremely effective means of distributing counterfeit / pirated products, crowding out legitimate opportunities for copyright holders. The latest Notorious Markets List 2013 report, which was published in February 2014, includes a list of the main web pirates for the past year, which are managed or hosted by hosting companies in Canada, China, the Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, and Ukraine. Of ours, Russian RuTracker.org and Ukrainian Ex.ua have traditionally been noted there.
Internet piracy is a matter of serious concern to the USTR. According to USTR, unauthorized relaying of sporting events and the ability to read books online via the Internet are still a serious problem for many US trading partners, in particular for China (most likely China and other partners just do not care, no one is puzzled by this “serious problem” ), and websites that link to violators only exacerbate the problem. By the way, Yandex for this is a separate bow, Google agreed to clean the search results for DMCA complaints and to give out only what the copyright holders allow, but Yandex refused.
USTR cites SlySoft, an organization headquartered in Antigua, that has developed and marketed a program called Any DVD HD. The software allows the user to crack the encryption technology of Blu-ray discs, which prevents unauthorized reproduction and / or distribution. After seven years of interaction between copyright holders and the authorities of Antigua, a criminal case was brought against SlySoft; in April 2014, the owner and manager of Slysoft was found guilty of distributing tools to crack encryption and was fined $ 30'000. Please note that not for piracy or the promotion of piracy, but for the distribution of hacking tools. And the amount of the fine is just ridiculous for a 7-year history of intergovernmental negotiations, the owner of SlySoft most likely just laughed at the copyright holders,
The problem of the Caribbean region The
United States has repeatedly expressed concern about the enforcement of intellectual property rights in the region. In 10 countries in the Caribbean, local companies refuse to cooperate and recover damages to representatives of copyright holders, and in some countries the state itself controls these pirated media companies, like MCTV in Barbados. Thus, the government "roofs" its own business, nothing new.
Italy and Philippines
Italy was removed from the list in 2014 due to the adoption on December 12, 2013 of regulations for the protection of copyright on the Internet. The legislation now allows you to block content on the principle of notice-and-takedown - the owner of the site is exempt from liability if he removes the content on demand. By shortening the translation of a paragraph in Italy, USTR rejoices in this regard. The Philippines was excluded from the report on the totality of positive achievements, for the constant and successful work in the field of copyright protection.
Ukraine
Ukraine was included in the Priority Foreign Country list in 2013. This list has been empty for 7 years (!). Priority Foreign Country is defined by the USTR as the “country with the most egregious situation in the field of copyright, with the greatest adverse effect on the relevant American companies and products; countries that are not entering into the negotiation process and / or are not making significant progress in negotiations to ensure adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights. ”
Lyrical digression. Understanding what categories our ex-president thought, we are sure that the paper with the wording “US Trade Representation reported that we have big problems in the field of protecting intellectual property rights” didn’t even get on his desk. Grain, coal, metal - this is understandable, butkopro ... kapir ... copy ... .... pi-wright - this is something hellishly unknown and hardly promises multi-billion dollar income, and you won’t make a loaf of copyright.
The main problems in Ukraine USTR named: 1) the management of companies responsible for collecting and paying royalties to US copyright holders; 2) the use of pirated software by Ukrainian government bodies; 3) online piracy. The Ukraine investigation, which ended February 28, 2014, determined that “Ukraine’s copyright policies and regulations are burdensome or even restrictive for American business, but no action will be taken by the United States in connection with the political situation in Ukraine.” Ukraine is removed from the report for 2014.
Russia
In 2014, Russia remained on the Priority Watch List as a result of continuing serious problems in the field of protection of intellectual property rights. Russia adopted amendments to its Civil Code, which weakened the protection of rights to industrial designs and created confusion in the mass of exceptions and limitations. The USTR is concerned that intellectual property protection continued to decline in 2013, following 2012. The process is opaque and inefficient. Rightholders are concerned about the production, storage and retail trade of counterfeit products, including counterfeit agricultural chemicals, electronics, software, auto parts, consumer goods, machinery and other products.
A separate cause for concern is the production and marketing of fake pharmacological drugs in online pharmacies. USTR notes that last year in Russia, 2 convictions for online piracy were issued, both limited to probation, one with a fine (looking at the market, 2 charges cause a smile). USTR notes that Russia remains home to many sites promoting Internet piracy that harm both the legitimate content market in Russia and producers from third countries. According to USTR, measures to combat end-user in the field of piracy have declined sharply, including less frequent raids on the relevant authorities, criminal cases, and court decisions being enforced. Most likely, the authors of the "anti-piracy law" and all amendments to it are now simply indignant. They adopted laws here, you know, they tightened the screws so that only Cheburashka was farther, and the USTR was small and small ...! It's only the beginning.
I would like to add from myself ... Good copyright or evil, let everyone decide for himself. But everyone needs to remember that restricting the circulation of digital content and attempts to control the flow of content are directly opposite to the main goal of the Internet - the transfer of information.