US government dictates Swedish copyright laws

http://falkvinge.net/2011/09/05/cable-reveals-extent-of-lapdoggery-from-swedish-govt-on-copyright-monopoly

by moeffju • 15 years ago

133 39 15 years ago

morganpyne• 15 years ago

Unfortunately, this scenario is being played out all over the world. We had similar revelations in New Zealand a while ago. http://www.nzcs.org.nz/newsletter/article/119

It's disgusting, but not surprising. US has been desperately attempting to export it's draconian grip on copyright to the rest of the world at all costs for quite a while now.

kragen• 15 years ago

A lot of these changes actually go beyond what the copyright industry has been able to do in the US. There's no data retention provision in the US, for example.

pasbesoin• 15 years ago

I think some of this is a two part play against domestic policies. Bully foreign interests to implement, and then push the same policies domestically, using the foreign implementations as part of the argument. ("Compliance", "even they're doing it", "parity", "protect domestic interests", etc....)

dhughes• 15 years ago

If any other country even thought of doing such a thing the USA would be claiming it was an attack on its sovereignty and declare war.

jtwb• 15 years ago

Why? What does the US have to offer to Sweden in return for implementing this legislation by their design?

dexy2• 15 years ago

The US wields all kinds of influence over a nation like Sweden. If the US raised a few barriers to trade with Sweden, it would have a drastic effect on Sweden's economy. Many Swedish industries depend on exporting to the US, and while US citizens could just import similar goods from elsewhere if Swedish goods became more expensive, Swedish businesses would lose a gigantic and wealthy market that they depend on selling to.

I'm sure that Sweden depends on the US as a military ally as well, it provides visas for many Swedish citizens regularly, and much more. At the end of the day, Sweden just needs the US more than the US needs Sweden, and that's why the US can argue from a position of power for its own industries.

burgerbrain3• 15 years ago

I think Sweden might overestimate their dependence on the US. The military threat to Sweden is currently rather low, (and there's always the rest of NATO).

Countries just need to all agree to start ignoring the US. I bet doing so would be a positive gain for economies in the long run.

tsotha• 15 years ago

In recent years the US Congress has had a lot of success bullying other countries through the use of the banking system. By putting restrictions on the ability of US banks to do business with the target country's banks they can put a lot of stress on financial interests in that country.

CWuestefeld• 15 years ago

Leading off with a hyperbolic statement like "every law proposal, every ordinance, and every governmental report hostile to the net, youth, and civil liberties here in Sweden in recent years have been commissioned by the US government and industry interests." -- I can only take the whole thing with a grain of salt.

I'm quite willing to believe that the US government exerts a large influence. I'm absolutely unwilling to believe that the Swedes are angels, and never do anything wrong on their own; that every problem in Sweden is a self-inflicted wound as directed by America.

danssig• 15 years ago

Why would Sweden be making laws to protect US IP? Why would they care?

tokenadult• 15 years ago

Why would Sweden be making laws to protect US IP?

International treaty obligations, negotiated on the basis of some advantage perceived for Sweden. A lot of what countries do in law enforcement protects the nationals of other countries or protects the interests of another sovereign state. The usual reason for that is mutually negotiated agreements.

duncan_bayne• 15 years ago

This is just one of the reasons I got out of politics several years ago. Simply put, things don't work the way most people think they do.

Policies are decided behind closed doors, by people with vested interests, and then presented to the public - who are by and large uninterested, uninformed, insufficiently educated and unwilling to consider anything but their immediate short-term interests.

As Mark Twain is supposed to have said, "If voting changed anything,they'd make it illegal."

gwright• 15 years ago

Thus the interest that many of us have in reducing the size of government and in general the concept of limited government. Unfortunately the general direction seems to be in increasing the size of government and the rationale seems to be 'so it can fix everything'.

winestock2• 15 years ago

Bless your heart, I truly and sincerely sympathize with the concept of limited government, no joke. However, limited government is to political science what perpetual motion machines are to physics.

Whatever body limits the government is itself sovereign. What limits that body? Are written constitutions supposed to limit the power of government? Who implements those provisions if not the government?

The concept of limited government, as it is typically expressed today, had its origins in the Enlightenment. It was all the rage among the cool people in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. That idea deeply influenced the constitutions of nearly every nation in the West. Look around. All of those nations now have large and growing governments. The idea of limiting the scope and reach of government by popular will or by written charter has had a track record of perfect failure.

A government of limited and specifically enumerated powers is too weak to resist pressure to make it larger. The best way to get big government is to start with a small government.

The way out of this is to think sideways.

guelo• 15 years ago

The problem with limited government is the management of the commons. Everybody wants safe water, safe air, safe food, etc. Also you need to make investments in the future such as infrastructure, science research, education, etc. Once you have a huge economy with powerful competing interests you're going to need a big government to manage it all. The "small government" types say that we should let the free market somehow make the choices on all these things, but I think that is just naive thinking.

user9756• 15 years ago

I wonder if there is a country on this planet independent from US policy? I wonder how such a state would be portrayed by the "free" media...

US government dictates Swedish copyright laws

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