Special 301 Report 2013: USTR Wants To Hear About Infringement, Not Innovation

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

Found this over on www.eff.org.  Good read, I'm glad we have the EFF watching this stuff and trying get change policy.

Since 1989, the USTR has used these reports to hint at the threat of trade repercussions for those countries who do not choose to adopt copyright, trademark, and patent laws that mirror, or in some cases exceed, US law. Although a listing in the 301 report doesn’t lead directly to the imposition of trade sanctions, several countries—such as Spain—have unfortunately felt compelled to enact dangerous IP laws to pacify the USTR. The USTR has never published its exact criteria for determining who will be included in the Special 301 reports, but we do know that the reports are far from objective and almost always follow the recommendations of big pharma companies and the International Intellectual Property Alliance.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/02/special-301-report-2013-ustr-wants-hear-about-infringement-not-innovation