P2P Fans Beware! 34 Countries Are Now Gunning For <em>You</em>!

jharv | October 24, 2007 9:30 am
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Including the EU! And those wild attack dogs in Switzerland! In the wake of the RIAA’s first successful jury trial and the OiNK bust, the dominoes are gonna start falling! Maybe! If everyone can figure out what kind of donuts they want at the first meeting. And decide on a good time to meet for everybody involved. Because Tuesday is just not going to work for New Zealand.

The new treaty is intended to complement the existing Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual-Property Rights — the so-called TRIPS agreement established by the World Trade Organization.

“It will not involve any changes to the TRIPS agreement,” the USTR said. “Rather, the goal is to set a new, higher benchmark for enforcement that countries can join on a voluntary basis.”

Though no deadline is set for concluding the new treaty, Schwab said she hopes to produce an agreement as quickly as possible.

Ah, a “new” agreement that won’t involve any significant changes to a potentially outdated model, but will set a “higher benchmark” for the kind of non-enforcement these countries have been practicing so far. And these nations don’t have to join in right away, or at all, and we’ll just hope everyone can come to some kind of agreement sooner than later. They’ve really come a long way since the last time they all sat down. Maybe this is why people are actually shocked and confused when sites like OiNK get shut down. Anti-piracy initiatives are starting to play out like a Mel Brooks parody of international bureaucracy. With fewer fart jokes, sadly.

Global Anti-Piracy Treaty In Works [Variety]