Nice attempt at satire. However, Afghanistan is almost the only country left in the world where international copyright laws essentially don't apply. They're not signatories to ANY treaties I could find administered by WIPO, including the Berne and Paris conventions. They're not part of the WTO or World Bank or NATO, or even the League of Arab States. In short, RIAA can take their legalese and shove it up their intellectually protected arse, as far as Afghanistan is concerned. See http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/okbooks.html for more on copyright and different laws in different countries. For an extract of Afghanistan's 1950 copyright law, see UNESCO's content at: http://www.unesco.org/culture/copy/copyright/afghanistan/sommaire.html I'd say the chances of even their law (which is very slack by modern standards) still being enforced by whomever is in charge in AF are slim to nil. -- Greg PS: If you think this means AF is a "music haven" where the rest of the world could go to host, republish or redistribute content that's under copyright elsewhere, sorry. This would only apply if you wanted to spend the rest of your life there, because as soon as you left and arrived at, say, a signatory to the new WIPO copyright treaty, you'd find yourself Skylarov'd. PPS: Number of .af hosts listed at Netcraft = 1 (http://www.nic.af) PPPS: Number of functional .af hosts listed at Netcraft = 0 On Fri, Dec 07, 2001 at 07:18:32PM -0600, measl@mfn.org wrote:

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2001 17:17:09 -0700 From: xxxx To: yyyy Subject: RIAA Cracks Down After Taliban Ousted

http://bbspot.com/News/2001/11/riaa.html

Kabul, Afghanistan - The Recording Industry Association of Afghanistan (RIAA) has begun a major crackdown on pirated music since the Taliban fell from power 2 days ago, and launched their own bid for control in the war torn city. Many cheered the fall of the Taliban, but the RIAA feels that if music can be listened to that copyrights will be violated.

Soon after the Taliban fled Kabul, black market Qamar Gul and Ahmad Zahir CDs were being openly peddled on street corners. Rumors of Abdullah Muqri MP3s circulating on the Kabul computer were widespread.

"It was much easier to control music piracy when the Taliban was in control. Now we fear that with their new found freedom the people of Kabul and in the rest of Afghanistan will turn to copyright violation to satisfy their musical needs," said RIAA President Ghulam Hotak. "An RIAA lead country will be able to enjoy the joys of music, but only if artist are properly compensated."

Opposition groups denounce the RIAA power grab. "We will fight to the last man to keep the RIAA from power in Afghanistan," said General Mahommed Dawood of the Northern Alliance. "We did not unseat the Taliban only to have them replaced by a more oppressive regime."

The Recording Industry Association of America has pledged support to the RIAA by offering troops from its elite piracy fighting Freedom Squad. "We can not sit idly by and watch the people of Afghanistan violate copyrights. Our brothers in the RIAA need our support," said Hilary Rosen.

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