[kgrlxssg] Corruption and the WIPO treaty

How did the treaty establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization come to pass in many countries (and other international copyright agreements, e.g., the Berne Convention)?  For a country which consumes more intellectual property than it produces, it would have been (selfishly) not in its best interests to have signed the treaty.  This is probably true most countries other than the United States.

I suspect the answer is corruption: wealthy and powerful foreign IP owners influenced and coerced the government into agreeing to it.

The treaty inhibits country-by-country "grassroots" efforts toward better copyright law: For example, one country unilaterally weakening its copyright and demonstrating it causes world to be a better place.

Perhaps, then, the oblique first step toward fixing copyright is to root out corruption in some small foreign country.  Though if such a country withdraws from the WIPO treaty, I would not be surprised if the United States retaliates with a military embargo: starving their citizens to death until Mickey Mouse gets protected again.  We still have corruption here.