Ethics Newsline®

VARIOUS
Three collisions in the treacherous ethical intersection of high technology and intellectual property made headlines last week:

• The Reuters news agency reported that major music labels now have an entirely new piracy problem: music videos. New user-created video-content sites, such as YouTube and Google Video, have provided a technical apparatus for sharing music videos. The practice of trading music videos only recently showed up on the music industry’s radar, Reuters reported, because the videos were originally promotional devices, designed to promote sales of CDs. But about 18 months ago, the major labels figured out that they could sell music videos for a profit. The Recording Industry Association of America has been sending cease-and-desist letters to individuals it caught sharing music videos, and reportedly is pressuring some of the major video-sharing services to erect technical roadblocks to exchanging unlicensed videos, Reuters reported.
• A Russian website that offers downloaded songs for a fraction of the price of sites such as Naspter or iTunes is a hit among bargain hunters, but is decidedly unpopular with Russian authorities and U.S. trade officials. The Associated Press and Wired magazine report that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has gone so far as to hint that if Russia allows the site to stay active it will endanger the nation’s bid to join the World Trade Organization. The operators of the site say a wrinkle in Russia’s copyright law allows them to sell music without seeking permission of copyright owners. Western recording labels, the AP reports, say the site is misinterpreting the law.
• China, often called the world’s largest violator of copyright, was scolded last week by U.S. deputy trade representative Karan Bhatia. The Agence France-Presse quoted Bhatia as saying that among the “irritants” in the “complex relationship” between the United States and China is the issue of intellectual property, noting that U.S. exporters are often in knowledge-based industries, and find it “very difficult … to compete in an environment where intellectual property rights are not enforced and are not respected.” Bhatia was speaking at an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) trade ministers’ meeting in Ho Chi Minh City.