Months of fighting and insecurity have forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes in South Sudan’s eastern Jonglei State, triggering “one of the most severe conflict-related displacement emergencies in recent years”, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Friday.
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Faith, fear and trust: Inside DR Congo’s fight against Ebola
In a village in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), health workers arrived a few days ago to help bury a person who had died from Ebola. Instead, they were threatened, told armed rebels would be called if they stayed, and forced to leave. -
Weekly Roundup: June 5
On Monday, Richard Joyce examined Mark Carney’s call to abandon the fiction of the rules-based order and “live the truth.” That truth, unfortunately, looks much like the continuation of neoliberal capitalism. On Wednesday, Sarah Schindler and Kellen Zale argued that as policymakers pursue supply-side reforms to address rising housing costs, they must also confront a legal regime that affords…
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Vietnam’s Online Piracy Failures Trigger Section 301 Investigation, Tariffs on the Table
Last month, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) issued its annual Special 301 Report, signaling which countries can make improvements on the IP enforcement front.
In the most recent report, the USTR applied the “Priority Foreign Country” status for the first time in thirteen years, calling out Vietnam for persistent failures to deter online piracy and counterfeiting.
In recent years Vietnamese authorities reportedly helped to shut down several pirate sites, including the massive Fmovies network, which served billions of visitors. However, the criminal prosecution of Fmovies resulted in suspended prison sentences, which lack a serious deterrent effect by U.S. standards. Meanwhile, many piracy operations continue to link back to the country.
Under the Trade Act of 1974, the Priority Foreign Country designation triggers a 30-day window for USTR to decide whether to open a formal investigation. Late last week, Ambassador Jamieson Greer formally made that call.
USTR Opens Investigation
The Section 301 investigation will examine whether Vietnam’s policies and practices related to copyright protection and enforcement are unreasonable or discriminatory, hindering U.S. commerce. Judging from the comments released by the USTR, it believes that Vietnam’s shortcomings are serious.
“While Vietnam has recently taken some steps toward addressing IP concerns that the United States has chronicled over many years in USTR’s Annual Special 301 Report, IP infringement in Vietnam continues to impair the competitive position of U.S. innovators and creators,” Ambassador Greer said.
“We need to see Vietnam resolve these long-standing concerns, including on a range of IP enforcement issues, in a manner that is sustained and that deters future IP infringements,” he adds.
With the announcement of the investigation, USTR also opened a consultation round, asking stakeholders to comment on their trade-related experiences with Vietnam. This includes the piracy challenges and concerns, which are highlighted as the primary concern in the federal register notice.
Piracy First
The notice mentions that Vietnam’s failure to provide effective enforcement against online piracy is the primary reason why Vietnam is designated as a priority foreign country. The USTR wants to see significant improvement on that front.
“The United States has repeatedly raised strong concerns about Vietnam’s role in online piracy worldwide,” the notice reads.
“Vietnam remains a significant source of online piracy and continues to host popular English-language copyright infringement sites and services that target a global audience. Some of these sites provide piracy services, including extensive libraries of pirated movies and TV shows.”
The USTR notice doesn’t mention any sites and services by name. However, its earlier Notorious Markets report flagged HiAnime, Myflixerz, and MegaCloud as key threats. Interestingly, these sites all went offline in the days and week before the USTR’s Special 301 Report came out.
Whether the operators of these sites are targeted in criminal investigations in unknown. However, USTR’s notice mentioned that pirate site operators in Vietnam have had it relatively easy in recent years.
There have been criminal prosecutions in high profile piracy cases, including the cases against the operators of BestBuyIPTV and Fmovies. However, these resulted in mild suspended sentences with relatively low fines. According to USTR, these lack a proper deterrent effect.
“Despite Vietnam having criminal laws that provide for substantial fines and years of incarceration for copyright infringement, the defendants in recent criminal prosecutions received suspended sentences and were only ordered to pay relatively low financial penalties,” USTR writes.
“The operators of these sites and services likely based themselves in Vietnam because Vietnam’s IP enforcement efforts have historically lacked the follow-through and substantial penalties needed to deter infringement.”
The problem runs deeper than lenient sentences alone. According to the federal register notice, rightsholders face informal pressure from Vietnamese enforcement authorities to file administrative complaints rather than pursue civil or criminal enforcement. These administrative proceedings carry no meaningful deterrent effect.
Tariffs are on the Table
The request for public comments asks stakeholders to weigh in on “what action, if any, should be taken, including tariff and non-tariff actions.” This means that different types of trade sanctions are now on the table.
The USTR must make its final determination within six months and right holders and other parties have a month to submit their comments.
Behind the scenes, USTR will also consult with the Vietnamese government to see if the concerns can be addressed before it makes a decision, in consultation with President Trump. If Vietnam engages, in order to avoid possible sanctions, we might see more enforcement actions taking place in the country.
In that sense, the recent disappearances of Myflixerz and MegaCloud, and the shutdown of HiAnime, may have been a primer for what’s to come.
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The Federal Register Notice is available here (pdf). The USTR press release can be found here.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
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Dutch Cocaine Kingpin Sheltering in Sierra Leone Allegedly Organized Shipment Seized in Record Bust
One of Europe’s most wanted fugitives — Dutch drug trafficker Joseph “Jos” Leijdekkers — organized the cocaine shipment seized in a record bust on the high seas last month, a Spanish law enforcement official told OCCRP.
The vessel was apprehended in international waters off the West African coast on May 1 by Spain’s Civil Guard. On board, officers found more than 30 tons of cocaine worth over $954 million, and arrested 23 people including Dutch, Surinamese and Philippines nationals.
Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told reporters the bust was “one of the biggest, not only nationally but internationally.”
The cargo ship, called the Arconian, had set out from the Sierra Leonean capital of Freetown, according to a Spanish court document previously obtained by OCCRP. But until now, officials have not publicly said who they suspect was behind the cocaine shipment.
Spanish law enforcement believe it was organized by Leijdekkers, who is on the European Union’s most wanted list of fugitives and has a base in Sierra Leone.
“He is the one who [allegedly] set up the operation,” said Lieutenant Colonel Oscar Remacha, head of the Civil Guard’s anti-drug trafficking department.
“He had those 30 tons stored in Sierra Leone, and he organized the transport and supplied the drugs,” Remacha alleged in an interview with OCCRP.
The Spanish court document does not list Leijdekkers among those charged in the case.
Leijdekkers’ lawyer confirmed by phone that he had received emailed questions about the Spanish allegations from OCCRP, but said: “I see no reason to respond.”
Dutch authorities are offering a reward of 200,000 euros ($232,208) for tips leading to Leijdekkers’ arrest. A Netherlands court sentenced him in absentia in 2024 to 24 years in prison for drug trafficking, armed robbery, and ordering murder.
Dutch authorities have not been able to secure his extradition from Sierra Leone, where he is widely reported to be well connected with the country’s political and economic elite. Netherlands police this week said they had searched the homes of four crew members of the Arconian.
Last month’s news that the 30 tons of cocaine discovered on the Arconian had originated in Freetown only added to Sierra Leone’s growing reputation as a haven for drug traffickers like Leijdekkers.
The bust prompted Abdul Kargbo, leader of the opposition All People’s Congress party, to write an open letter on May 10 to the country’s president, Julius Maada Bio. Kargbo referred to media reports about Sierra Leone’s role as a hub for cocaine trafficking, which has also been documented by organizations like the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Kargbo criticized “the prolonged silence and apparent hesitation by the Government of Sierra Leone in responding firmly and transparently to these matters,” and cited in particular the continued presence of Leijdekkers in the country.
Remacha, of the Spanish Civil Guard, said Leijdekkers appears to enjoy “total impunity, total confidence” in running trafficking operations out of Sierra Leone.
The Sierra Leone Police and the Internal Affairs Ministry did not respond to requests for comment before publication. The government in February announced 52 convictions related to drug trafficking and organized crime, saying they posed “a serious threat to national security.”
While the Arconian was on paper destined for the Libyan port of Benghazi, authorities say the real plan was to rendezvous with speedboats that would pick up packages of cocaine on the high seas and run them to the Spanish coast.
There has been a “recently increased use of high-speed boats” to move cocaine from cargo ships to the coast, rather than smuggle it in through ports, according to Remacha.
“We’ve seen so many videos and images of groups of these boats rafted together 150 miles off the coast, waiting to go out like they’re at a taxi stand,” he said.
Remacha said the Civil Guard had information about a major upcoming shipment, and knew roughly where the cocaine would be shifted to speedboats. “The Civil Guard’s maritime intelligence team analyzed dozens of ships until they detected the Arconian,” he said, adding that Dutch and U.S. law enforcement then confirmed the lead.
Remacha said Leijdekkers’ network had likely already used the same method to move drugs into Spain, and the Arconian was only their latest attempt.
“He knows getting it out of Sierra Leone is easy for him. After that, it’s not normal for a ship on that specific itinerary to undergo any inspection unless it approaches a port,” Remacha said. “So he was quite confident he wouldn’t get caught.”
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The COVID Amnesia Project: Erasing Your Free Will to Preserve the Fantasy of the Optional Pandemic
Countless millions of Americans prioritized their health and protecting their neighbors over an imagined return to normal in 2020. Our sacrifices deserve recognition and gratitude, not amnesia and revisionist history from sheltered political scientists.
The post The COVID Amnesia Project: Erasing Your Free Will to Preserve the Fantasy of the Optional Pandemic first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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One in four births in England is now emergency caesarean, BBC analysis shows
The shift marks a significant rise over the last five years, but experts say there is no single, clear explanation for the increase. -
‘World-first’ vaccine designed by Artificial Intelligence
Cambridge scientists say they have, for the first time, tested a vaccine designed by AI. -
California’s AB 412 Still Demands Developers Do The Impossible
California lawmakers are again considering A.B. 412, a bill that would require AI developers to identify and disclose copyrighted works used to train generative AI systems.
The problem this year is the same as last year: it’s practically impossible to comply with this law. The bill demands information that often does not exist, and cannot realistically be obtained.
EFF submitted an opposition letter to the California Senate Privacy Committee explaining why we continue to believe A.B. 412 is simply unworkable. To the extent developers do follow this law, it will have the effect of locking in the power of the largest companies in AI.
A Burden That Can’t Be Met
A.B. 412 sounds simple: just have AI developers create and keep a list of all the registered copyrighted works they use in AI training.
That may seem straightforward. In practice, it’s anything but.
There is no machine-readable “list” of copyrighted works at the U.S. Copyright Office. And many copyright holders can get a copyright without even depositing a publicly viewable sample of the work—for example, software companies may register copyright on proprietary code without revealing it to the public.
And on the open internet, copyright information is often incomplete, unavailable, or impossible to verify. One image may be registered with the copyright office, while the next is licensed under a free Creative Commons license (like the images that EFF creates), and the next is public domain. A message forum user might post an original story, photograph, or poem without any indication of ownership or registration status.
The bill effectively asks developers to continuously cross-reference massive batches of online data against a copyright system that simply wasn’t designed to do so. If California passes A.B. 412, its impact will go far beyond the large AI companies we read about in the headlines.
Not Just Big Tech
Supporters often frame this bill as a way to help creative workers have some leverage against Big Tech, but the bill reaches much further than the big AI companies.
Its definition of “developer” extends to anyone who makes a generative AI model available to Californians. That includes indie developers tinkering with an existing model, open-source initiatives, nonprofits, and other non-commercial efforts. Recent amendments added exemptions for universities and government entities, which is important, but that still leaves out a vast swathe of non-commercial tech work that’s done by people without full-time jobs in government or academia.
Large companies will hire compliance teams and lawyers to navigate these requirements. Smaller organizations and independent developers usually can’t. The result will be fewer opportunities for startups and new entrants. Faced with this massive compliance burden, some won’t even try.
Courts Are Already Deciding These Questions
The bill is premised on the idea that copyright owners currently don’t have good remedies if they’re mistreated by AI companies. That simply isn’t true. And the growing wave of federal court filings in this space prove it. Content companies that want to sue tech companies, large or small, have no problem doing so. Those courts are still working through important questions about fair use and transformative use. Some courts have already concluded that many AI training activities qualify as fair use. Others continue to evaluate the issue.
California lawmakers should not rush to impose new state regulation while those questions remain unresolved. This is why copyright is governed at the federal level: both creators and fair users benefit from a single set of nationwide rules.
At this point, the bill remains a solution in search of a problem. Rights holders already have powerful tools to protect their interests under existing federal law. What this bill adds isn’t clarity or transparency, but a costly and essentially impossible compliance burden that will discourage small developers and researchers.
California has been able to support both artistic creativity and tech innovation for decades now. But A.B. 412 does not strike the right balance.
If you are a California resident and interested in speaking out about this bill, you can find and contact your representatives through this website.