John Gordon Ross

AFP reports that “Canada, China, Mexico, Russia and Spain have been singled out by members of the US Congress for “alarming levels” of piracy of copyrighted movies, music, video games and other entertainment.” This comes in the wake of the IIPA Special 301 I was talking about yesterday, and is surely not unrelated. Now, the “Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus, made up of more than 70 members of the Senate and House of Representatives, [has] placed the five countries at the top of their “2009 International Piracy Watch List”

So what is this International Anti-PIracy Caucus? It is a group of American politicans (international? They can’t mean an interntational caucus of US politicians, so they must mean “Anti-International Piracy,” was that too difficult a structure for them?) at the service of their constituents (quite rightly, too) who happen to be the same industries who pull the strings of the IIPA.

Should anyone outside the US take any notice? Most emphatically, no.

Specifically:
“Peer-to-peer (P2P) piracy in Spain is widely perceived as an acceptable cultural phenomenon, and the situation is exacerbated by a government policy that has essentially decriminalized illicit P2P file sharing.”

a) P2P is not synonymous with piracy
b) If P2P is perceived as acceptable, that means it is acceptable in Spain
c) P2P is not illicit under any circumstances, nor should it be criminalized to serve the interests of US industries.

So this is yet another example of the power of the copyright industries to bend truth. One senator is quoted as saying, “We must stop this destructive mindset.” And that is the name of the game – brainwashing.

You can see the whole story here