US threatens Canada

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p2p news / p2pnet: Hollywood and the Bush administration have drawn even closer together.

US "lawmakers" have named six countries including China and Russia and, wait for it, Canada, as targets in their new Keep the Big Six Studios' Bottom Lines Healthy campaign.

With Mexico, India and Malaysia, the countries will be monitored, "for continuing copyright piracy problems," says CNET News.

Canada is on the Hollywood ***** list because of "lax border measures" that let in pirated products from East Asia, Pakistan and Russia, the lawmakers said, according to the story.

With Hollywood mouthpiece China Dan Glickman of the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) jetting back and forth to Beijing, and with various above and under-the-table accords in place, China is slowly falling in line, although Time Warner, Viacom, Fox, Sony, NBC Universal and Disney are keeping up the pressure with US trade rep Rob Portman up front.

Russia, however, is still proving difficult, and China Dan appeared there, waving a big stick, just as the US was closing bilateral negotiations with Russia on its possible inclusion in the World Trade Organization.

Will Canada's new prime minister, Stephen Harper, now have Glickman on his case? And will the country soon announce a joint US/Canada 'trade' association aimed at bringing Canada into the fold as another tightly and strictly controlled Hollywood sales division?

The release of the watch list update, "comes as the US government plans a round of trade talks with China starting Tuesday," says CNET, adding:

"Russia is working hard to fix copyright privacy problems, and the Russian parliament has worked on combating piracy in hearings this year, said a spokesman for the Russian embassy."

There was no reported comment from Ottawa.

source: p2pnet