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U.S. Officials Talk Piracy In Paraguay
by William New
Two House Republicans and representatives of the U.S. software industry met with law enforcement officials in Paraguay on Tuesday to discuss efforts to reduce software piracy.
Cass Ballenger of North Carolina, chairman of the International Relations Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, Gerald Weller of Illinois, a member of the Ways and Means Committee, and Bob Kruger, vice president for enforcement at the Business Software Alliance (BSA), made the trip. They met with Basilia Vasquez, the sole prosecutor from Ciudad del Este, the border city known as a regional center for organized crime, counterfeiting and transshipment of pirated optical media goods from Asia.
According to a BSA release, Vasquez has conducted repeated raids on major shopping areas in Paraguay since taking office three months ago, seizing more than 1 million pieces of pirated software and musical compact discs (CDs) and launching more than 100 prosecutions.
Paraguay's level of piracy is 79 percent, among the worst in Latin America. BSA and other copyright industries listed the country high in their submission for the U.S. Trade Representative's annual review of copyright enforcement. They estimated losses due to copyright theft at $270 million in 2000, up from $219 million in 1999.
The Paraguayan government has taken some positive steps in enforcement, BSA said, but commitments made to strengthen copyright laws and enforcement have not been implemented. "Proper software management within government agencies is a top priority in Paraguay, so we are hopeful that resources are provided to adopt strong software-management policies throughout government agencies," Kruger said.
Weller and Ballenger commended Vasquez for her efforts under pressure. The most recent seizure snared 6 million blank CDs arriving from China via Uruguay. At the Tuesday meeting, Vasquez was given software donated by Microsoft and Symantec to help in her efforts.
Zoellick Presses China On Trade Compliance
In a Tuesday speech at the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick detailed the shared history of the two nations and highlighted the economic effect of the "new age of globalization."
The speech culminated in an offer to work with China to help it comply with the obligations it made when it acceded to the World Trade Organization last year. "Our goal now should be to work together to assure that China's commitments are implemented faithfully and on schedule, and to assure that China in turn can utilize WTO rules to prevent other countries from closing their markets to Chinese goods," Zoellick said in his prepared remarks.
China committed to greatly reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers, and better protect and enforce intellectual property rights, Zoellick noted. It also agreed to allow companies engaged in telecommunications, computer services, banking, securities, insurance, freight forwarding, and wholesale and retail distribution to invest in China. The country further agreed to greater transparency in transforming its laws and regulations.
But problems will arise in the process, Zoellick said. "Implementation of China's commitments will not always be easy," he said. "While some changes can be achieved by simple fiat or decree, many others will require a multitude of decisions, adjustments and technical knowledge.
"When problems arise, as they will, my preferred method will be to consult, to try to understand the Chinese perspective, and to make suggestions on how to proceed in securing implementation of China's commitments."
Zoellick finished by encouraging China to be active in the new round of negotiations at the WTO.
Bejing Official To Meet With U.S. Tech Firms
The Director of the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Area will lead a delegation to the United States on April 15-20 to meet with companies interested in setting up operations in Beijing, according to the Northern Virginia Technology Council's international committee.
The development area is a state-level section that offers businesses "dual preferential policies for both state-level economic and technological development areas and state-level high-tech industrial parks," NVTC said. The area already has attracted companies from 30 countries, including many Fortune 500 high-tech companies, it said.
Bush Administration Questioned On 'Digital Divide'
A Clinton administration official involved in the effort to close the global gap between those who have access to technologies and those who do not this week called into question the "digital divide" efforts of the Bush administration.
Charles Santangelo, former Eastern Europe director for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Global Technology Network, said in a presentation to students at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies that the issue is "clearly not as high a priority [for the Bush administration] as it was for the Clinton-Gore administration. Al Gore made that his thing. That's not anybody's thing yet in the Bush administration, and maybe it never will be."
Santangelo, a trade consultant in the Washington area, said after the presentation that he welcomes the White House's fiscal 2003 budget proposals to increase federal technology spending for cyber security to $4.2 billion and for homeland security to $722 million, and to increase foreign assistance by $5 billion per year during the next few years.
"Hopefully, some portion of that $5 billion annual increase will go toward bridging the digital divide between rich and poor nations," he said. He also noted favorably that funding would be continued for the worldwide USAID Global Technology Network.
But Santangelo said he questions the proposed elimination of programs designed to bridge the digital divide within the United States, such as the Federal Technology Opportunities Program administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. He also cited the importance of the Education Department's community technology centers.
For Santangelo, the four pillars of a country's successful use of information technology are availability of the infrastructure, literacy of 50 percent or greater of the population, security of the technology, and government support for a favorable regulatory environment.
Santangelo also raised the potential negative impact a growing digital divide could have on anti-terrorism efforts. While he played down any direct link between a widening divide and terrorism, Santangelo noted that "increasing inequality, however it is caused, can lead to unrest."
Thailand Adopts Use Of Electronic Evidence
A government policy to allow electronic documents to be used as evidence in court proceedings in Thailand took effect this week, despite some outstanding questions about its application.
For instance, the so-called e-Transaction Act, which includes the use of digital signatures, does not clearly set out which country's laws would apply in a cross-border dispute, the Bangkok Post reported. Another question is whether it applies to pre-existing contracts. In addition, the government is preparing a "royal decree" that will exempt some online activities from the law.
Defense Department, Norway Sign Declaration Of Principles
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Norwegian Defense Minister Kristin Krohn Devold last week signed a bilateral declaration of principles for enhanced cooperation on defense equipment and industry.
Declarations of principle are designed to reduce impediments to cooperation between U.S. and European defense companies, identify areas to move toward similar processes, harmonize and streamline procedures, and lessen administrative burdens, according to a Defense Department release.
The bilateral declaration covers harmonization of military requirements, assurance of the supply of defense goods and services, export procedures, information and technology security, ownership and corporate governance, and cooperative research and development, Defense said.
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