RIAA/United States' Next Target: China

First, the U.S. told Russia it would have to do something about AllofMP3.com before that country could be admitted to the Word Trade Organization (WTO); now it appears that China is in danger of losing its WTO membership, also because it's too lax on copyright in the eyes of entertainment conglomerates. The same U.S. trade representative who announced Russia's copyright problem held a press conference today in Washington to announce that tomorrow, the U.S. will file actions against China with the WTO in Geneva.

According to Billboard, "the claims charge that China, a member of the WTO, has failed to complywith agreed rules to protect intellectual property rights (IPR) and hascreated market barriers for the trade of legitimate music, movies andpublications."

Mitch Bainwol -- the RIAA's Chairman/CEO/chief lobbyist of the RIAA (and former Chief of Staff for Bill Frist [R-TN]) -- said the U.S.'s impending attempt to bar China from the WTO on copyright grounds had been a long time coming:

"This is not a step taken lightly. Such action happens only after years of advocacy by alllevels of our government to encourage the Chinese to match theirrhetoric with action. And it comes after making plain to the Chinesethe consequences of their inaction. This development is nothing tocelebrate -- it is unfortunate that China has not yet decided toembrace its international responsibilities. This failure to abide byinternational standards and obligations is in no one's interest --
least of all China's, whose cultural and economic opportunities arecompletely stifled by the quagmire of piracy."

Although the RIAA is a non-profit trade organization, not agovernmental agency, RIAA lobbyists, the record labels they represent, and their movie industry equivalents are thought to be responsible forthe WTO's insistence on copyright enforcement as a prerequesite for WTO
membership.

Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) told me over thephone that when he traveled abroad to warn foreign governments aboutadopting U.S. copyright law as-is, foreigngovernment officials had already met with RIAA representatives, whom they had assumed represented the views of the U.S.
government itself. Scary.

It appears that Russia's and China's WTO memberships depend on their willingness to enforce the U.S.'s version of copyright laws such as the DMCA. As more countries seek WTO membership, the DMCA -- criticized by many as unfairly limiting fair use -- could become the worldwide standard for copyright enforcement.