Imperialism, Intellectual Property and Free Trade

April 2, 2005

For a primer on how the First World is using free trade as a carrot to force strong IP protection in the rest of the world, see Prof. Charles Nesson’s article entitled “IP Imperialism.” I blogged about this as part of a class I took with him. It was the first time I blogged and surprisingly, I found it difficult to do that despite the fact that we had free broadband access. 

Book Piracy: Whose Problem Is It?

In an INQ7.Net story, Chairman Edu Manzano of the Optical Media Board cites book piracy as the culprit behind the Philippines being put on the U.S. Trade Representative’s Special 301 Priority Watchlist. What he means is that book piracy is more prevalent in this country than optical disk piracy.

Well, that’s an eye-opener.

I can’t remember the last time I saw a pirated book for sale. I can’t remember the last time the media reported a crackdown on book pirates either printing or selling those materials. I can’t remember the last time someone approached me on the street asking me to buy a copy of a pirated book. In fact, I’m not even aware of any place that sells pirated books. But pirated software, music and movies contained in optical disks are available in most shopping places (not counting those door-to-door merchants going through offices). Although my data is anecdotal, I’ll bet Mr. Manzano’s conclusion is wrong..

On the one hand, his statement can be dismissed as being entirely self-serving. By diverting attention away from optical disk piracy, he’s relieving himself of the obligation to fight it more vigorously. After all, this kind of piracy doesn’t contribute so much to piracy overall.

But this position leads to the following questions: (a) If optical disk piracy isn’t such a priority in the fight against infringement, then why didn’t Congress pass a law on book piracy (say, one that regulates xerox copiers instead of optical disk duplication)? and, (b) Why must taxpayers fund the Optical Media Board when it won’t contribute as much to removing the Philippines from the Special 301 Watchlist? Given our meager resources, shouldn’t we instead fund a body designed to combat book piracy?

If he’s correct, then the policy response should be: “Let’s leave the optical disk pirates for now while we combat the larger problem of book piracy.” (more…)