Illegal File-Swapping on Par with Terrorism in the U.S.’ Eyes?
By Alexander Grundner |
June 21st, 2006
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The U.S. has a long history of throwing sanctions around against politically corrupt or threatening countries, but now it appears that if a country – even if it’s apart of the WTO – harbors or aids and abets file-swappers or illegal traffickers of copyrighted works, it may soon face trade sanctions.
According to SVT.se, a news outlet in Sweden, the U.S. government (in cahoots with the RIAA and MPAA) has already threatened Sweden (a current WTO member) with trade sanctions if they don’t take action against the likes of The Pirate Bay (via Slyck News). State Secretary Dan Eliasson remarks: “I know that the USA has opinions on the effectiveness in our system when it comes to copyright and that if Sweden and other countries aren’t following their international agreements there are sanction mechanisms in the USA, which have been pointed out from their side.” Remember, just the other day, the U.S. also accused Russia of similar allegations and threated their entry into the WTO unless they took action as well.
But to further solidify the skewed point of view that file-sharing is on par or beneficial to terrorism, all you have to do is read U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ comments posted on CNET that state: large-scale criminal enterprises involved in intellectual-property theft use their profits to fund terrorist activities. Really… or just a convenient excuse?
Filed in: Industry Buzz