Catching and prosecuting international copyright pirates remains a tough problem in cyberspace, said federal law enforcement and industry sources. Despite well-publicized efforts by the entertainment industry to bust illegal file sharers in civil courts, these efforts are primarily U.S.-centric. In criminal cases, the task of convincing local law enforcement to actively pursue the bad guys takes time and finesse, experts said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a fourth version of its Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) and responses regarding the mandatory advance electronic cargo information requirements for truck carriers. This fourth version contains a further revision to FAQ 19. See future issue of ITT for full summary. 4th FAQ (dated 12/14/04) available at http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/import/communications_to_industry/advance_info/truck_faqs.ctt/truck_faqs.doc.)
Australia agreed to a new Fair Trade Agreement with the U.S. that changes the copyright definitions for that country, in part by limiting protection of ISPs for violations of copyright by their subscribers. Dave McClure of the U.S. Internet Industry Assn. -- which long has fought to keep ISPs from being made liable in file- sharing cases -- called the new laws “draconian” and expressed concern the U.S. may soon make corresponding changes in its intellectual property laws to “normalize” relations with Australia.
IBiquity, Kenwood and Texas Instruments are named in a complaint filed last week at the International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging that TI’s “C6000” family of DSP devices sourced from its plants in Malaysia and Taiwan and built into Kenwood HD Radio receivers produced in Japan violate 5 patents on digital processing techniques held by a licensor in Boulder, Colo.
The Treasury Department's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) has issued a notice announcing that it will hold a public meeting on December 15, 2004 to provide information on implementation of the new certification requirements for imported wine contained in section 2002 of the Miscellaneous Trade and Technical Corrections Act of 2004 (Miscellaneous Trade Act, Public Law (P.L.) 108-429).
There have been two recent developments regarding certain proceedings relative to the antidumping (AD) duty and countervailing (CV) duty investigations/orders on certain softwood lumber products (softwood lumber products) from Canada, as follows.
The International Trade Administration (ITA) and the International Trade Commission (ITC) have issued various notices, each initiating automatic five-year sunset reviews on the above antidumping (AD) duty orders.
In an earlier edition of International Trade Today, Broker Power had substantially transcribed what is now known as the first draft version of U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP's) New C-TPAT Security Standards for Importers.
In a recent speech before the Propeller Club of Washington, D.C., Federal Maritime Commission Chairman Steven Blust commented on a number of maritime issues, including the recent Supreme Court decision, Norfolk Southern v. Kirby, which reaffirmed the statutory distinction between forwarders and non-vessel-operating common carriers (NVOCCs).