I’m rather amused that Iceland isn’t even on the Watch list.

Just shows that standing up to the USTR is a good thing.

Regarding Italy:

The United States also looks forward to the report of the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry on Counterfeiting and Piracy in the Commercial Field, which is an important opportunity to state the importance of strong IPR protection and enforcement in Italy and to identify solutions to address persistent concerns

USTR is now naming exactly the time and place where the expected kow-towing is to happen.

The recent Copyright Lobotomy article excellently documented some of the Orwellian doublethink in the copyright space. The Special 301 report provides some good examples of the corresponding doublespeak:

market access by persons with IP

“Market access”, in this context, not meaning what most people would mean by “market access”, namely, they can import something and put it up for sale in a storefront. Oh, no. Here, “market access” means “ability to get the government to squash your competitors” — in other words, lack of access by anyone else. In normal, non-Orwellian language we’d call that market exclusivity.

(2) widespread (and admitted) use of illegal software by Ukrainian government agencies;

“Illegal software”, here, apparently means “integer the nonrivalrous use of which said integer’s ‘owner’ hasn’t been paid for”, as opposed to, say, hacking tools or some such thing that it might conceivably actually make sense to criminalize.

and (3) failure to implement an effective means to combat the widespread online infringement of copyright and related rights in Ukraine, including the lack of transparent and predictable provisions on intermediary liability and liability for third parties that facilitate
piracy, limitations on such liability for Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and enforcement of takedown notices for infringing online content.

Another country matching that description is … the United States of America. The DMCA safe harbors remove third party liability for copyright infringement done by other people, and takedown notices are not enforced by the government. A notice sender has to sue and seek an injunction to get something taken down if a DMCA notice isn’t sufficient. The DMCA notice doesn’t carry the force of such a court-issued injunction itself, nor should it. But apparently the hypocritical USTR won’t be happy with Ukraine unless they enact a much stricter rule than the US’s own DMCA, giving copyright holders direct censorship power over websites and not granting safe harbors for third parties.

Also notable: all of the BRIC group of emerging economies are on the “naughty list”, India of course for its stance on access to life-saving generic medicines (shame on the US again here!) …

Prediction: with Italy and Greece both on the “naughty list”, expect someone to start spreading FUD about how failure to respect IP enough leads inevitably to economic disaster, and to point to Italy and Greece, perennial 301 listees that are undergoing economic woes of late, as the “proof”. After all, with some countries brazenly ignoring the largely-toothless Special 301 list, something more is needed to, if not force, then frighten countries into toeing the line. If the same argument can be used to further promulgate the myth that IPR is necessary to have a thriving and innovative economy, so much the better. Frankly I’m surprised not to have seen maximalists floating such an argument, citing Italy and Greece as “proof”, somewhere already.

Don’t worry like any extortionists the US government will put Spain back in that report soon enough.

Next year Spain will be there for one reason or another.

Vikings did that to the UK, “you pay us and we don’t attack you”, that didn’t last long and Vikings invaded anyways conquering everything. Of note is the fact that to be a “Viking” was to be a “pirate”, when Nordic people told others they would go Viking they meant to go on a rampage pillaging everything in sight.

The 301 report doesn’t need to be accurate as long as others accept it the way it is, maybe it is time for other countries to start making their own 301 report thing and put crazy demands on it and start acting on it as if they were all correct and justified.

You see if you just want to justify shit you want to be done why bother with the truth? is not the intent, of the damn thing, just make shit up and sell it as so and those who buy are the suckers like Spain, although it may be that Spain has no choice, because it has no leverage on the matter and so it has to bend over and just take it all.