And even by your numbers, we aren’t that bad!

Wow. When I wrote my screed about intellectual property last week, I had no idea that Canada is being unfairly targeted:

Canada comes in at 32%.  The remaining countries (no rates are listed for Algeria, Israel, or Venezuela):

Country BSA Claimed Piracy Rate
Argentina 75%
Chile 66%
India 66%
Indonesia 86%
Pakistan 85%
China 79%
Russia 70%
Thailand 76%

Not only is Canada not even remotely close to any other country on the list, it has the lowest software piracy rate of any of the 46 countries in the entire Special 301 Report.

And this is ignoring the fact that the claims made by the BSA are afterward subject to dispute — this is merely the raw percentage of claims! The article goes on to describe all the ways we prosecute people infringing on imaginary property. So not only are we paying a levy on every blank media sold (whether you’re a pirate or not!), we’re much less guilty of these “crimes” than these other countries that infringe with impunity. So, why is Canada being targeted? Could it have something to do with the festering trade dispute over lumber, and the various attempts to “secure” (read: close) the US-Canadian border over the years, ever since America went all paranoid-schizophrenic over 9/11?

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And even by your numbers, we aren’t that bad!
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2 thoughts on “And even by your numbers, we aren’t that bad!

  1. 1

    I don’t think it’s quite as conspiracy theory as being about the lumber dispute or 9/11 but it’s probably just the US government trying to make our government do everything they do. I think they like to try to keep us in check with what they’re doing so they don’t look so bad lol

  2. 2

    No, I suppose lumber is a stretch, but you have to admit the twig snapped after 9/11, and that incentivizes trying to force us to toe their line.  You know, since their plans are so much more beneficial for the world economy than ours.  *cough*

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