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Spying on Petrobras: if proven its ‘industrial espionage’ warns Rousseff

Tuesday, September 10th 2013 - 00:47 UTC
Full article 19 comments

Reports that the United States spied on Brazilian oil company Petrobras, if proven, would be tantamount to industrial espionage and have no security justification, Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff said on Monday. Read full article

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  • RICO

    If Brazil orders 4 billion jets where will it get the pilots?

    Sep 10th, 2013 - 03:10 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • GeoffWard2

    I think we need to re-define Terrorism.

    The sort of state-generated industrial espionage that we are talking about here is the sort that destroys economies, garners the world's wealth to it to the detriment of poorer nations, and denies through control the development of nations.

    This is state-terrorism - economic terrorism - and should have the same controls and sanctions placed on it as we presently apply on those who place a bomb in their shoe ... a lifetime of 'interrogation' at Gitmo.

    Who should be given the Gitmo Alternative?
    ... Where does the buck stop?

    Sep 10th, 2013 - 05:57 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Brasileiro

    @ 2 Geoff,

    Great review. I fully agree. The world does not need this war.

    Sep 10th, 2013 - 06:15 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Klingon

    American foreign policy at it's finest.
    Brazil needs to cancel all state contracts with the US and send the fighter deal to Europe.
    Hopefully more NSA leakers will come out and reveal the truth that is really going on.

    Sep 10th, 2013 - 08:14 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • malen

    industrial espionage isnt illegal???

    Sep 10th, 2013 - 08:58 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Garrett Connelly

    The US can turn off smart phone cameras at demonstration, who believes US weapons can't be turned off as well ?

    Sep 10th, 2013 - 09:04 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Think

    TWIMC

    I can almost visualize them young ”Top Gun” Brasilian pilots sitting in them U$S 100,000,000.- American made fighters, hearing a Yankee voice saying…..:
    ”This plane will self-destruct in five seconds….. Good Bye; Suckeeeers….”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA2KmJMKFrQ

    Sep 10th, 2013 - 12:47 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Conqueror

    Whine, whine, whine. what is it about women that they have to whine?

    @4 You certainly are “Klinging on”. Europe, of course, doesn't talk to the USA. Why not try Russia? Their stuff rusts well, wings drop off, “holes” appear.

    Sep 10th, 2013 - 02:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • yankeeboy

    Maybe a little tit-for-tat since Brazil has been stealing USA patents for years.
    It is our job to spy your job to hinder us.
    Dilma is too stupid to play with the big boys
    Grow up and stop whining

    Sep 11th, 2013 - 09:23 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Gonzo22

    Love the part “Brazil has been stealing USA patents”.

    Sep 11th, 2013 - 11:23 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • golfcronie

    Your comments make you sound like a (_ )(_ )=====D ( a Pecker)

    Sep 11th, 2013 - 01:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Garrett Connelly

    Those stolen patents were very probably for two thousand year-old indigenous people's herb remedies which makes it illegal for the people to use the herbs anymore.

    Sep 11th, 2013 - 02:54 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • GeoffWard2

    Good, Garret #12.
    Even now the control over the exploitation of the indigenous products of Brasil is inadequate. This is down to the uneducated nature of Lula, the president, who signed the protocols.

    Sep 11th, 2013 - 06:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • yankeeboy

    12. Er no, they reverse engineer patented drugs and declare them national interest.
    They are thieving scumbags like all the Marxist led Latam countries.

    Sep 11th, 2013 - 10:31 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Stevie

    Thou shalt not steal from a thief?

    Sep 12th, 2013 - 01:15 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • GeoffWard2

    I have problems with this whole area.

    On the one hand:
    Many of these 'Western' synthesised drugs have been taken from the effective active ingredient found in the plants of poor tropical nations - the very nations that seek to minimise their health costs so that the huge populations of poor but infected people can get some sort of treatment for their conditions. There is *very* poor control over rich nations 'stealing' the potential pharmaceutical wealth of the poor nations.

    On the other hand:
    A 10 or 20 year patent on the one successful product in the developed world can recoup the costs of the thousand or more unsuccessful attempts. Simple math says that is why a drug under patent has a 1000% mark-up for the patent period. This keeps the company in business, and keeps the anti-AIDS-type drugs being developed.

    BUT:
    The third world has millions of people infected with AIDS, and it would cost many times the GDP of most countries to pay Western prices for the treatments.
    South Africa negotiated in 2002 (?) a reduced price for the patented AIDS drug - using WTO's agreement on trade-related intellectual property rights, known as TRIPS overriding, but it was still vastly too expensive for treating the majority black population. Also, drug firms fear that if their products are sold at low prices in poor countries, smugglers may buy crate-loads and ship them back to rich countries, where they could undercut legitimate sales.
    India circumvented the patents by producing generic versions, frequently with some side-chain modification, that did the same job but often less well. I have bought these in Bahia but found them to be frequently less effective than those bought in the UK.
    Brasil has a mass of home-produced generic drugs on sale, and rul on Pipeline Patents to address the matter. http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120321/05042018182/another-boost-generics-brazilian-judge-annuls-patent-key-aids-drug.shtml

    But my dilemma is that so many of the great multinationals

    Sep 12th, 2013 - 06:37 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • yankeeboy

    Just because a “magical” leaf or root was found in a country doesn't mean they have created the drug.
    That is the terrible fallacy that progressives have about business.
    They think it is easy and should be free

    The USA vigorously protects patents and guess what, most of the world's new drugs come from, wait for it, wait for it, The USA.

    The drug companies do set prices by income levels of different countries. It is up to the country if they want to give it to their citizens for free or at a reduced cost.
    If you are talking just about AIDS drugs the USA THROUGH PRIVATE Charities and some Gov't $ gives away lots of product world wide. That is how it is supposed to work otherwise the system will shut down.
    You can't nationalize a drug where would cash flow come to research the next one?
    Come on think it through
    Why don't you think there are any drug ( or any) research companies in Marxist countries?

    Sep 12th, 2013 - 08:14 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • GeoffWard2

    I have thought it through, on my own and through academic seminars over the years.
    I am left with dilemmas that are not answered by the thought processes of many minds more powerful than mine.
    'Solutions' are just the favouring of one point of view over the others.

    A 'solution' with optimisation of every need needs something much more than national governments, the WHO, the UN, the pharmaceutical companies and the millions needing treatment. Such a forum with the teeth to (sub-)optimise the position of each interest-group does not exist ... and probably never will.
    We must live with the local outcomes of insoluble dilemmas.

    Sep 12th, 2013 - 11:02 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Garrett Connelly

    Your task, should you accept it, is to devise a possible method to focus specie intellect to define the hurdles and then make the jumps. There is no existing social form that is based on qualitative growth and justice, yet, that does not mean we cannot make one, complete with a modern constitution.

    Sep 12th, 2013 - 12:31 pm - Link - Report abuse 0

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