“If countries agree to pass DMCA-like laws as part of a treaty,” U.S. “negotiators may offer better terms for exchanging other goods and services.” – CNET story on the acquittal of a Norwegian programmer acquitted of a DVD-related charge.

The TeleRead take: So here’s the big question. Just what trade protections for nonHollywood types are U.S. officials bargaining away in the name of DMCAism? Won’t anyone from the media investigate? Hollywood brags about the money it brings in from overseas, but, in the future, how much of that will be at the expense of other industries? And has anyone done a cost-benefit analysis? Generally I like free trade, but with so many U.S. jobs lost due to it, and with politicians not able to come up with solutions to the jobs-drain, those are not minor issues. Is it Hollywood vs. mill workers in North Carolina or Boeing hands in Seattle?

Related: Meanwhile the outflow of some U.S. programming jobs and other white-collar work goes on–and on. See White-Collar Anger.

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