[Mindwipe]

> That raises the question of why these countries don't repeal their versions of the DMCA. > The answer is tariffs, it seems.

No it isn't.

Like literally, the US and it's tariff madness has literally nothing to do with it. The EU and Canada are both signatories to the WIPO Copyright Treaty, and signatories of the WTO provisions that include continued operation to it. They are international treaties with a wide degree of international support, not US inventions. Christ, Europe had a lot more to do with the wording of the anticircumvention provisions in the WIPO treaty than the US did.

People should stop taking Doctorow seriously. He has a long track record of making shit up that is what his audience wants to hear.

[rwmj]

Because of course we can never change international treaties.

[like_any_other]

They can be, but the point remains that it is not US tariffs forcing Europe into them - it is the doing of their own governments (whose preferences should not be confused with those of their citizens).

[Teever]

The assumption underlying this is that the governments that implement the WIPO treaty are doing so without duress or threat of tariffs from the United States which may or may not be true. We'll never know.

But what we do know is that the EU has recently put regulations in place that allow them to curtail the IP privileges given to companies in countries that they feel economically threatened by.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Coercion_Instrument

It will be interesting to see them use this or if the mere existence of the law is and the mere possibility of use is them using it.