Spreading US Copyright Law without Even Knowing What that Means

MSNBC is running a story about the US Trade Representative's goal of negotiating a new intellectual property pact which would benefit the American companies who export their IP.

The money quote is from the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Montana Senator Max Baucus:

"Ideas are America's true currency and if we want to be economically competitive, strong protections for U.S. intellectual property are key."

As readers of this blog will know, you cannot copyright ideas. Though the dichotomy between expression (qualifies for copyright) and ideas (not allowed copyright) is subtle, as a protector of the Constitution and exporter of American legal systems, I would hope Mr. Baucus would review it.

Anyways, as I wrote in the beginning of this nearly year old blog, America started as a "pirate nation" which didn't respect the intellectual property of others. However, as a net exporter, we are now using our hegemonic position to push our ideals of copyright onto other nations and people who don't have the same historic background.