China Cracking Down on Piracy

[Greg Tito]

China Cracking Down on Piracy

The Chinese government holds up its hand and says, "I got this. Don't worry."

Military intelligence. Wireless cable. Dark Sun. Living Dead. On par with these oxymorons is the idea that China is getting tough on piracy when "Chinese knockoffs" can still be found throughout the world. Even their theme parks heavily use Western trademarks like World of Warcraft [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/113866-Chinas-Joyland-Park-Rips-Off-StarCraft-and-WoW]. If the growth of trade between China and the rest of the world is to continue, foreign trademark holders like Hollywood and the gaming industry need some assurance the communist government will continue to prosecute pirates withing its borders. Now, the Chinese government does seem committed to the task, setting up an agency to deal with the problem through the Ministry of Commerce.

"China faces an arduous task fighting IPR infringement as well as the production and sale of fake products, so greater administrative and law enforcement efforts are needed," a statement from the Chinese government said.

So far, China has prosecuting more than 28,000 criminal cases of intellectual property theft and more than 6,700 criminal gangs who were either supplying, storing or transporting pirated goods have been broken up.

Dang it, this is just gonna make it harder to buy a "Coach" bag for my wife when we shop in New York's Chinatown next week. (For the record, I'm just kidding. I can't even afford the knockoffs in Chinatown ... )

Source: Variety [http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118046039?categoryid=13&cs=1&cmpid=RSS%7CNews%7CFilmNews]

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[samsonguy920]

For one, there is no surprise there are so many knock-offs since the US uses Chinese companies the most for manufactured goods. It really is no wonder that US companies really don't raise a gripe over it since it would put them in a corner on why the hell aren't they taking their business elsewhere.
This is just going to be a shakedown for show so China can say they are tough on commercial crime, but I wouldn't expect it to last long, since I wouldn't be surprised that most of the ripoff companies are actually owned by the same companies that manufacture crap for the West.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

so..

china is going to arrest the whole nation?

i kid, but yeah this is more then likely just a publicity kind of thing, if china honestly was serious about this they would have half the merchandise exports being confiscated.

 

[Baresark]

If the growth of trade between China and the rest of the world is to continue, foreign trademark holders like Hollywood and the gaming industry need some assurance the communist government will continue to prosecute pirates withing its borders.

Haha, this is funny. They export everything to everywhere. If it's to continue? No one is going to stop buying cheaply made good from China.

Also, they are socially communist, but they are economically capitalist. Ergo, they have had personal wealth and growth in exponential (and I really do mean exponentially, not like when people use the term to describe large growth but not growth that actually grows to a certain power) since 1978. The fact is, companies need to get over this IP thing when speaking in international terms. Borders are for politicians, idiots, and special interests. This is global capitalism baby!

Edit: I realized after I posted. I am not in favor of piracy. I didn't mean it to sound like I am. But realistically speaking, it's a laughable joke to think companies wouldn't buy goods from China. And it's not a borders thing. People completely miss the point of global capitalism. Goods that are affordable to everyone, everywhere. Borders, trade agreements, tariffs, protectionism, these are the things that hurt everyone and help no one. Especially not domestic goods creation, contrary to popular belief.

 

[Zen Toombs]

Um, let's see if that actually works for them.

[sup] hint, it probably won't. [/sup]

 

[Puddleknock]

Ah good luck with that! When I taught in China I remember it being easier to find the knockoffs than anything authentic.

Going around Chinese marketplaces were always fun, you could find everything and anything except for what you needed.

 

[oldtaku]

Not a chance. They just want to make sure they get their cut.

 

[Therumancer]

This is largely a diplomatic gesture due to a lot more people finally realizing what I've been saying for a while now about China's economy. With things coming to a head economically, the US's credit rating taking a hit, and a lot of people wising up to how the solution of "borrowing" our own money back from China as a diplomatic alternative to forcing them to stop isn't working especially as China's military increases in power and those debts are being taken more seriously (which ties into the whole credit rating thing).

China is in a position where it needs to be seen as making some kind of an effort, in hopes of being able to delay the rising sentiments here until such a time as it's ready to begin to realize it's military ambitions. A lot of the world, despite all the anti-US posturing has been looking at them with an increasing amount of concern.

The thing is that we need to be very careful of liberal "peace at any price" sentiment and keep the sentiments towards China brewing towards actually taking action, which will most likely have to be military, while we still have a chance of winning.

See, the bottom line is that China's entire economy relies on knockoffs, pointing fingers towards criminal gangs and making some arrests (in China they can arrest people for just about anything) is meaningless, as the goverment itself is ultimatly behind most of this because stealing IPs and Copyrights, and violating patents is how the entire nation finances itself. China innovates and actually owns very little as far as products go, especially what the global market would be interested in, thus it's dependant on theft and sweatshop labour to keep it's economy growing.

If China actually abides by international patents and copyrights, and most importantly pays damages based on it's thefts, the nation is going to collapse. We've done the whole "borrowing back the money they stole" thing to keep all of the relevent goverments going, but recent things like the credit drop for the US have brought this thing to a head, as has China's increasing belligerance and military power in general. Like it or not, we need the total revenues from our own creations and resulting taxes (not just the US, but other nations as well) due to our own economic problems, and without them we're going to fall hard ourselves. Ultimatly it comes down to an us or them situation.

The problem with China has never been criminal gangs, but the goverment refusing to acknowlege patents, and doing business in a way to limit the amount of money leaving their economy (in addition to their thefts, their trade policies are likewise questionable, read back on the arrangement Blizzard has/had with China to do WoW there). While the theme park got attention from us nerds here, that's petty in the overall scheme of what they steal. While it goes back many years now, an example of a big patent violation would be something like Viagra. Viagra took a ton of money to develop, test, and promote, and China just analyzed it and started producing it on it's own, undercutting the rightful owners. Most of these internet viagra sales and stuff all go back to China (and a few other nations) knocking it off. We're looking at a product used by a truely vast number of people, the sales are being lost to the company that made the drug, as are the taxes on the sales that go to the goverment, not to mention the employment (and more taxes) that would come from hiring people and staffing facilities to meet that massive international demand. That's only one product (but one of a scale that matters) and it kind of illustrates the problem with China.

China can arrest whomever they want, but the bottom like is that it doesn't matter unless trillions upon trillions of dollars wind up making it back into the hands of the property owners, wit a lot of that going into the pockets of goverments via taxes

 

[MercurySteam]

In a country where PSPs come pre-hacked, region free games are made and cheap knock-offs are as numerous as the people? Good luck.

 

[Alar]

-Hyper Snip-

This is the kind of thing that makes me feel that a third World War could be approaching us in the next couple of decades if things don't start shaping up for our economy. Also, I really don't like the idea of China taking over the United States, as unlikely as that might seem.

 

[Veylon]

The Communist Party has never had much regard for patents or copyrights. The dog-eat-dog Capitalist world has even less. The Chinese media suffers more than the West's from the flagrant disregard for law over there. Hollywood loses many millions, to be sure, but Chinese filmmakers can barely afford to make film. Chinese would-be game designers can't hope to sell games and make a profit to offset their production costs when they'll be instantly pirated. Trampling IPR underfoot is a foolish and shortsighted policy that will leave China culturally stagnant.

 

[Azmael Silverlance]

Coach bag? REALLY?

GUCCI dude...

 

[Rijo]

So when are they going to takedown Walmart.

 

[Something Amyss]

Better late than never? I guess?

 

[Ignatz_Zwakh]

PFFFT, I'll believe that when pigs can bloody fly.

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

Yeah... i beleive you 100% Chinese government.
You gonna be commited to this the same way you are about Huamn rights?
(oooohhh, BURN! )

 

[Pipotchi]

Ah Chinese Piracy, I remember roaming about markets in Hong Kong and all the guys would have catalogues with all the big Watch brands, Tag Heuer, Breitling, Rolex. You would give the 15-20 HKD and they would come back with a watch that looked just like it.

Ah memories!