A lot of legal circling around Iraq today. Let's start with the issue of piracy. Ernesto Van der Sar (TORRENT FREAK) reports that some copyright holders are complaining that Iraq is not punishing violaters:
Recently, several rightsholders mentioned Iraq in their submission to the US Trade Representative (USTR). The USTR uses these and other public comments to create its Special 301 Report, an annual list of countries that deserve extra attention due to various shortcomings that may hurt U.S. businesses.
Miramax and beIN Media Group are by far the most elaborate. The two companies sent a joint submission with over a dozen pages dedicated to Iraq. According to the rightsholders, the country faces massive piracy issues internally, but it doesn’t stop there.
According to beIN, Iraqi pirates are also exporting pirated broadcasts worldwide, including to the United States.
“More than one third of all internet piracy of beIN channels originates from companies based in Northern Iraq. After being copied by these companies, beIN’s channels are then re-streamed on pirate IPTV services generally, as well as from pirate websites accessible all over the MENA region, and the rest of the world.
“Some Iraqi operators are even distributing pirated content in the United States, through both physical goods channels and the internet. Again, none of these pirates has faced any enforcement actions by the Iraqi authorities, despite operating in clear view of those authorities,” the companies write.
Most people should have grasped there are other issues at play. Qatar's beIN Media Group is known for its tantrums -- yes, that is the term. It's previously sued Saudi Arabia. In addition, the pandemic hit it hards since it depends so much on live events for its broadcasting. And its one time dominance in legitimate broadcast and streaming has been chipped away via other (legal) upstarts. As for MIRAMAX,? BeIN was stupid enough to buy it in 2015 ahead of its implosion. Convicted rapist, harasser and all around predator Harvey Weinstein imploed with his illegal behaviors which finally were exposed (he left with brother Bob in 2005 to form THE WEINSTEIN GROUP but he was the face of MIRIMAX and his image is the company's image to this day). PARAMOUNT (VIACOM, et al), BeIN and others are left with a largely worthless company. DISNEY was smart enough to see Harvey for the bully and crook that he was (like many, they found his attempts to turn the Academy Awards into a bloodsport) and they bailed in 2010. MIRAMAX has a library and that's ll it's got. It's reputation is in tatters ad its been impossible for the tanked studio to rebound or start any real productions so it's largely little more than a film and TV library (with the TV portion a long failed enterprise -- and most infamous for Matt Damon making clear his intolerance of diversity on PROJECT GREENLIGHT -- if only people had paid attention back them, his later remarks wouldn't have been as shocking).
In the US, PARAMOUNT streams MIRIMAX films. There's no big market internationally because most of the films are worthless -- and before someone starts citing titles, know what you're talking about. Yes, Tarantino's films have an international audience. But many well known "MIRIMAX" films aren't owned by MIRIMAX -- they were just distrubted by it (and some were just distributed by MIRIMAX -- such as the acclaimed MY LEFT FOOT which MIRIMAX only distributed and only distributed in the US -- other examples include STRICLY BALLROOM, TRAINSPOTTING, MURIEL'S WEDDING, TIE ME UP TIE ME DOWN, ENCHANTED APRIL, . LITTLE BUDDHA, THE QUEEN . . . HALLOWEEN KILLS is the only hit film they've had since the fall of Harvey and that just brings up another problem. If you make the film, you get the profits. It you co-make the film, you get less profits. MIRIMAX co-maed the film with BLUMHOUSE PRODUCTIONS, ROUGH HOUSE PRODUCTIONS and TRANCAS INTERNATIONAL PICTURES -- and UNIVERSAL distributed it.
MIRAMAX is complaining and its likely complaining about everything and anything to justify its poor showing in 2021.
Staying with legal news, MACUA BUSINESS reports:
An Iraqi court sentenced to death on Sunday a police officer and an informant over a deadly operation in December that left 20 people from the same family dead.
The two men can appeal the verdict, handed down by the criminal court in the central province of Babylon, a judiciary source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Security forces in December opened fire on a house in the village of Al-Rashayed in Babylon, killing 20 people including women and children, under the pretext of pursuing two suspected terrorists.
But it was later revealed that a family dispute had motivated an informant to give “false intelligence” to police on the presence of “two terrorists” in the house, according to a judiciary statement issued in January.
“The Babylon criminal court has issued a death sentence by hanging for two of the defendants,” the Supreme Judicial Council said, quoted by state news agency INA.
Still on legal, "It's not the end of the world." So declared Hoshyar Zebari today as Iraq's Supereme Court issued a ruling: He cannot run to become the president of Iraq. PRESS TV notes:
The court said in a statement that a decision by parliament to accept his presidential bid was incorrect as the 68-year-old Kurdish politician did not fulfill the conditions for nomination stipulated in the country's constitution. It also barred him from running for the post in the future, the official Iraq News Agency reported on Sunday.
“We were surprised by our exclusion from our right to nominate,” Zebari said in a news conference following the ruling.
“We respect the judiciary, but I have the right to say that there has been injustice and arbitrariness in the decision.”
In a separate decision the Federal Court said that President Barham Salih, who is also running for a second term, will continue in his position until a new president is elected.
The court decision is a blow to populist Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who was the biggest winner in the October parliamentary election. He had vowed to quickly push through a government that could exclude Iranian allies.
Sadr, along with the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) of which Zebari is a member, and an alliance of Sunni Muslim lawmakers had supported Zebari's bid for president.
Michel Martin (NPR) observes, "It's been four months since the country's parliamentary elections, and party leaders are still negotiating over who should get the top positions. Meanwhile, there are other pressing issues to attend to, like electricity shortages, ISIS attacks and corruption." Shelly Kittleson (AL-MONITOR) reports, "The deaths of several soldiers in the western Anbar desert and attacks further south in the same province have drawn attention to the vast expanses that were long a hideout for insurgents." ARAB NEWS notes, "The polls were marred by record-low turnout, post-election threats and violence, and a delay of several months until final results were confirmed." And THE NATIONAL points out, "Some members of the Coordination Framework, including MP Alia Nsayyif, who is allied to former prime minister Nouri Al Maliki, have warned that violence could break out if government formation did not reflect their claimed electoral gains."
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