Digital Trade

News from Chile, related to U.S. - Chile FTA rules on copyright protection: The Chilean House of Reps has formally rejected the latest attempt Chilean President Michele Bachelet to “reform” that country’s copyright laws to include ISP-level content filtering. Pres Bacehlet had argued that it’s necessary in

Brian Hindley and Hosuk Lee-Makiyama have published a working paper on "Protectionism Online: Internet Censorship and International Trade Law."  From the abstract: This paper suggests that many WTO member states are legally obliged to permit an unrestricted supply of cross- border Internet services. And as the option

Bloomberg reports: China postponed tomorrow’s deadline for personal-computer makers to include a state-backed anti- pornography software on new PCs after U.S. officials and business groups urged it to scrap the rule

Over at the Kluwer Arbitration Blog, Luke Peterson talks about the investment aspects of the Chinese PC filtering issue.  He notes: One critical question in any claims arising out of this internet-filtering software dispute would be the expectations that investors had upon entering the Chinese market. For instance, it

The Economist mentions an interesting new detail about China's efforts to have all personal computers sold in China come with filtering software called Green Dam Youth Escort: An American firm, Solid Oak Software, claims Green Dam includes stolen copyrighted code from one of its products, and has launched

At the Huffington Post, Michael Santoro and Wendy Goldberg make the case to the incoming Obama team for Chinese internet censorship to be treated as a trade barrier: Almost all discussion of the harm done by China's strict censorship of the Internet focuses around its human rights implications.

From the AP: The rising popularity of markets where guesses are wagered on the outcome of everything from presidential elections to celebrity marriages has led to a situation that, well, many had predicted. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Thursday said it is considering whether these markets should be regulated,

I've mentioned before some suggestions in the U.S. that internet censorship be treated as a trade barrier (see here and here).  Now the EU is getting into the act as well: The European Parliament recently passed a proposal to treat Internet censorship by repressive regimes as a

It has been clearly established that online gambling is within the WTO's jurisdiction. Now some want to expand the WTO's role in internet matters even further. The Associated Press reports: Once relatively indifferent to government affairs, Google Inc. is seeking help inside the Beltway to fight