Copyright lobbyists strike again

Cnet News ^ | August 1, 2005 | Declan McCullagh

[logician2u]

Hollywood and large U.S. software companies chalked up another crucial yet little-noticed victory last week with the final approval of the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

You wouldn't know it from a political debate veering between labor standards in Nicaragua and the evils of protectionism, but one major section of CAFTA will export some of the more controversial sections of U.S. copyright law.

Once it takes effect, CAFTA will require Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua to mirror the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's broad prohibition on bypassing copy-protection technology.

[logician2u]

So, there was more to CAFTA than just "free trade" -- what a surprise!

And how many members of Congress were aware that hidden in the bowels of an overly-complex agreement (sometimes called a "treaty," but it's really not or it would have needed 2/3 of the Senate to ratify it, an impossibility) was a redefinition of "intellectual property" that would have brought a smile to Irving Berlin and his great-grandchildren. Copyrights good for "70 years after the author's death?" Such a deal! Software patents? Not even Bill Gates could wish for more.

All brought to you courtesy of the intrepid corps of industry lobbyists who managed to persuade government bureaucrats it was "in our best interests" when the "agreement" was being negotiated.

CAFTA is not free trade, but managed trade, managed by lobbyists and bureaucrats. Not by members of Congress, very obviously.