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Comment by kolistivra | Hacker News Reader

TL;DR anyone?

TL;DR: it's not directly mentioned in the linked article but it looks like the United States is pissed at http://www.ex.ua/ for media piracy [1].

A little background: Ex.ua is a combined direct-download file hosting service, search engine and torrent tracker that's positively huge in CIS countries. Unlike private torrent trackers to which it can be compared in terms of quality and quantity of pirated content Ex.ua does not have an invite system and the company that owns it is fairly public about its activity up to and including officially sponsoring numerous music events and even charity.

For an interesting look into a kind of a "parallel web" I'd suggest that you get a Ukrainian proxy (and translation software, should you need it) and browse the website yourself for a while but here is a sample search for "star wars 1080p": [2]. Locally you should be able to download at over 100 Mbps given sufficient bandwidth at your end thanks to the Ukrainian Internet exchange point (UA-IX) but from most other countries it's not only considerably slower but also only partially accessible. Just how much you can access depends on your IP's geolocation.

[1] http://www.iipa.com/rbc/2013/2013SPEC301UKRAINE.PDF

[2] http://htmlpaste.com/16d34b5749f5a990fc7c66dfad6e650fa1de476... (this is just the first 100 results of an undisclosed total)

TL;DR: The US Government is in Hollywood's back pocket. The Ukraine has been identified as a major source of music and movie piracy.

"The Special 301 report identifies some of the key foreign threats to America's copyright industries," said MPAA chairman and CEO Chris Dodd:

http://www.screendaily.com/news/distribution/ukraine-on-pira...

Can we also say that the Ukrainian government is in piracy's back pocket, then? Or do you believe that the 301 report has incorrectly identified the Ukraine?

There is a major difference. The Ukrainian government does not do anything about the piracy. In theory it might be because gov is in piracy's pocket, but most likely they just don't care. It requires inaction from them, which is usually not very hard. However, the US government does stuff based on hollywood complaints. To be honest, circumventing WTO rules aside, the USTR is simply enforcing the law that was passed by the congress, so the congress sits in the pocket of Hollywood, not the USTR, if there is any link.

So what you're saying is that if a government agency decides to look the other way when a crime is being committed, they're not in the pocket of the criminals? Like if someone robs a bank, but the police decide not to do anything? So looking the other way is "neutral"?

So, whether or not a piracy is a crime really does depend on both mindset and jurisdiction. US is one of the few places where you can make rules however you like and people will obey it, however little sense it makes. The laws in africa for example merely reflect what people think makes sense or does not make sense - if there is a law that does not make sense, people will happily ignore it, including the police. A good example is jaywalking - you can't potentially get fined for jaywalking in many places, despite it being a crime.

While you might or might not agree - this is a reality. I doubt movie piracy is considered a crime in Ukraine, whether you like it or not. That means people will do nothing, including the government. There is no such need as putting gov into someone's pocket - it's merely not considered worth bothering. In this sense Ukrainian government is neutral, they just don't do shit and reflect the general view on piracy expressed by the majority of the population. Whether it's an actual crime, is really very very irrelevant.

Ukraine is extremely corrupt and plenty of people pirate in the US. The only issue is who is profiting from other peoples work. If you make money from other peoples work you will be rightly smacked down in non-disfunctional states, that is not controversial.

The police in USA certainly look the other way when a bank in Ukraine is robbed. I think even if I called and reported an in-progress bank robbery in Ukraine, they would tell me it's not their jurisdiction.

That's not a good analogy. The 'crime' being committed here is actually being committed in the Ukraine. It's a question of whose laws are broken, and who should care. The US doesn't punish its citizens if they break the UK's strict defamation laws.

So... If I jaywalk, and a LE officer doesn't give me a ticket, he's in "jaywalking's pocket?" That doesn't make sense.

Is providing "pirated" movies and music even a crime in Ukraine?

Only if it is politically motivated. Usually, police takes money and get out.

also noteworthy is the US is doing this unilaterally rather than go through the WTO, which is probably against WTO rules and possibly US law as well. This is the first time US has threatened a WTO member (while they are actually a member).

The WTO issued sanctions against the US for it's handling of foreign online casinos[1]. Did they ever honour those sanctions and pay up? I'm guessing not. That's probably against US law too.

[1] http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds285_e....

China you're next! lol just kidding.

Came here hoping the comments could do a better job explaining what I just read.

Got a lot of "The Ukraine"s instead. It's not the Ukraine, it's just Ukraine.

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