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China Concerned About Internal Copyright Infringers
sfled writes "Audience members at a recent movie preview had ID card numbers stamped on their theater tickets, were videotaped entering the lobby, and had to part with cellphones, watches, lighters, etc. as they passed through a metal detector. Why the big fuss? Because China's movie makers, artists and other creators of intellectual property are finally realizing that China's content-piracy industry doesn't just target imported movies, music, etc. Story at The New York Times, "free" registration, etc..."
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If China wants to have an actual film, music, and art scene in their country, they should enforce copyright laws for both films foreign and domestic.
If they only enforce the laws for domestic films, then what is going to stop the average Chinaman from going to pirate an American movie instead? However, if they enforce the laws for American movies while protecting their own, their fledgling media may have a chance of producing an industry that could provide some valuable creative works, given China's historical creativity and inspiration.
Untill recently, China has turned a blind eye to rampant piracy in the country. Sure they do some token 'crackdowns' now and then to appease American companies but generally China is a piracy free for all. It's about time they get a taste of their own medicine.
Billions of dollars have been lost (or should I say stolen) from American companies because of chinese piracy. Considering how badly the economy is doing now, that doesn't make me feel too good.
GoatPigSheep, the 3 most important food groups
Actually, that would be against copyright law... I got this from the New York Times webpage...
All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of The New York Times Company. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.
However, you may download material from The New York Times on the Web (one machine readable copy and one print copy per page) for your personal, noncommercial use only.
Because America has less freedom of speach than China does now.
GoatPigSheep, the 3 most important food groups
I'm not serious. I view this as a good step--piracy in Asia is a terrible problem, software, movies, and more. I know that personally a number of movies I've seen downloaded from the net have Chinese subscripts. Enforcing intellectual property rights for the artists (be they producers, directors, actors, programmers, etc) can only be a good thing.
Couldn't find a cache, so here's a Google "translation" from Portuguese..
No Password Required
Twenties Retirement
Cracking down on the Entertainment industry where it is already heavily controlled and regulated to give an advantage to domestic product is one thing...
But they could much more easily walk into all the larger corporations in China (foreign or domestic owned) ask to see their current corporate license for Windows or any other major enteprise software, count the actual number of desktops (or employees using computers)and let the floggings, fines and hangings begin.
Just hold this up to the original article and read it backwards.
Google Partner Link
I swear, it takes all of 60 seconds effort - why can't submitters/editors include the Google partner link as well as the reg-required one!
Janie took my gun...
Now the average, urban, Chinese person (who has a yearly income of about $800) can stop buying cheap pirated movies and can, instead, spend a week's wages to buy a commercial video. That is, provided he/she was not planning to squander that money on food, clothing, or shelter.
Those living in rural areas, where the per-capita income is about 1/3 that will just have to sell a family member into slavery if they really want that video.
Maybe before whining about the evil Chinese pirating videos and software, you should consider what their incomes are compared to ours.
November 1, 2002
The Pinch of Piracy Wakes China Up on Copyright Issue
By JOSEPH KAHN
SHENZHEN, China, Oct. 30 -- When the members of the preview audience showed up at China's fanciest new movie theater here this week, they were treated to much more than just the first look at Zhang Yimou's big-budget martial-arts film, "Hero."
Viewers had identity card numbers inscribed on their tickets. They were videotaped as they entered the theater's foyer. They handed over all cellphones, watches, lighters, car keys, necklaces and pens and put them in storage. Before taking their seats, they passed through a metal detector. Then they got a welcoming address.
"We are showing this preview for your enjoyment tonight," announced Jiang Wei, an executive with the film's Chinese distribution company. "I plead with you to support our industry. Please do not make illegal copies of this film."
Anyone in China who makes movies, writes books, develops software or sings songs for a living knows that popularity is barely half the challenge; such people must also fight intellectual piracy.
In a country where more than 90 percent of the movies, music and software are illegal copies sold for a fraction of the original price, Chinese artists have begun to join big foreign interests like Microsoft and AOL Time Warner to protest China's seemingly limitless capacity to make cheap knockoffs.
The local effort is not going to solve the problem right away. The United States trade representative's office grouped China with Paraguay and Ukraine this spring as among the worst copyright violators in the world.
Still, the tone has changed. Throughout the 1990's, intellectual property was mainly seen as a trade dispute pitting the wealthy West against the developing East. It's now also a domestic struggle, with local stars complaining that they get little fortune from their own fame.
"After the release, we often have only three days before the pirate copies hit the market," said Mr. Jiang of New Pictures distributors, which handles Mr. Zhang's movie releases in China. "The industry can't survive that."
The belt-and-suspenders security procedures during the limited release of "Hero" at New South Country Cinema here, just across the border from Hong Kong, were aimed at protecting what China's film industry hopes will be the biggest martial arts sensation since "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." The movie, with an all-star cast led by Jet Li, cost $30 million, making it China's most expensive film production to date. Beijing will submit it to the Oscars as a candidate for best foreign-language film. Miramax, a division of Disney, has bought the international rights.
Security guards heightened the drama at the theater. They ordered people to leave behind jewelry and pens to protect against "needlepoint" digital camcorders, though varying descriptions of how such devices worked sounded more like something Q made for 007 in a James Bond movie than a common pirate's tool. Uniformed policemen roamed the aisles during the film. A few sat in front of the screen and watched the audience with what appeared to be night-vision binoculars.
The intense scrutiny prompted a few complaints, but also some sympathy.
"Zhang Yimou is not about to go hungry," said Zhu Dazhong, a 48-year-old Shenzhen retailer who saw the preview. "But if he makes a good movie, people should pay a little money to see it. The quality of the pirate copies stinks anyway."
China's creative industry has been hit hard by the failure to enforce copyright laws. Artists and their lawyers say piracy has worsened since China joined the World Trade Organization late last year and pledged to meet international standards for protecting intellectual property.
"The Touch," an action-adventure film, was a recent casualty. At the release of the film in Shanghai in August, Michelle Yeoh, who produced and starred in it, boasted about how bodyguards protected the original film reels. When the show moved from theater to theater, Ms. Yeoh said at the premiere, the reels were to travel separately so pirates who got their hands on one reel could not copy the whole film.
Nonetheless, DVD copies were available on the black market four days after the nationwide release that month, and ticket sales slid fast.
A popular folk music group, Yi Ren Zhi Zao, or Made by Yi, had an even shorter run with its latest CD. A pirated disc made from a tape released early hit the market before the authentic version was in stores.
There are now 41 pirated versions of the album, said Zhou Yaping, who runs the group's production company, based in Beijing. He said many were sold openly in top department stores. The legal CD has a 1.2 percent market share, he said.
"Our hard work and money were stolen and sold cheap," Mr. Zhou said.
Foreigners have hardly been spared. Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows XP, was selling for 32 yuan, less than $4, in the back alleys of Beijing's technology district before Microsoft formally released the $180 legal version for the China market earlier this year.
What is presented as the fifth installment of the Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Leopard Walk Up to Dragon," has already reached Chinese bookstores. Though the cover attributes the book to J. K. Rowling, the British author, her publisher says the official version -- its title and subject matter will be different -- will not be available until next year. The Chinese edition is an inventive fake.
Altogether, the International Intellectual Property Alliance estimates that Chinese piracy costs foreign companies about $2 billion a year, or roughly a quarter of the total global losses attributed to copyright violations.
But while Chinese copyright holders probably do not lose as much money, local outrage generates more publicity than foreign pressure. A flurry of domestic lawsuits has attracted regular attention.
The country's two leading Internet portals, Sohu.com and Sina.com, sued each other, each accusing the other of stealing content. Mr. Zhou, of Yi Ren Zhi Zao, sued Chinese factories for manufacturing the illegal CD's. He won damages of 300,000 yuan, about $36,300, in a Beijing court.
Even the Buddhist monks of the famed Shaolin Temple have joined the fight. The temple pioneered Shaolin boxing, which evolved into kung fu. It has sought to trademark its name and has flung lawsuits against companies that use Shaolin as a brand, including one maker of canned pork.
Whether the lawsuits and publicity will slow the piracy remains to be seen.
The government has sought to demonstrate that it is finally taking the matter seriously. In August, the state-run China Daily tallied the exact number of pirated video and audio discs, 43.45 million, that had been destroyed in a crackdown so far this year.
But at a huge electronics bazaar in Shenzhen, not far from the movie theater that showed Zhang Yimou's premiere, vendors offered a cornucopia of China's latest releases for about a dollar each. "Together," the latest Chen Kaige film, which hit local movie houses in late September, was for sale in the top-quality DVD-9 format.
Legitimate DVD movies cost at least five times that much, and few were on sale at the bazaar. First-run movie tickets in China go for 30 to 50 yuan, about $4 to $6, depending on the show and the quality of the cinema.
"Hero" was not available on the black market -- yet. But Mr. Jiang, of the distribution company, said that despite the extensive security, he was still nervous.
"I won't be at ease until Nov. 4 or 5," he said. "If they managed to pirate it, it will be out by then for sure."
I was waiting for the inevitable Chinese people don't care about piracy, everything from fake watches to Windows are available in the streets of Hong Kong.
Does it not seem weird that most people here defend KaZaA et al as an opportunity to distribute material, but point an angry finger when Chinese people make copies of US films?
Just because they steal with a camera, and you steal with software doesn't make you any less of a pirate.
So lets get off the anti-Asian rants and show a bit of consistency. Either both are bad, or both are a chance for artists to reach an audience they otherwise would not.
Of course, IMHO they are both pretty insidious.
Has the intellectual moral high-ground stopped me downloading? Umm....I best not answer that.
If the pattern goes 9am, 10am, 11am, why isn't noon 12am?
Yeah... every time I go into any Oriental grocery store, there is always the ubiquitous rack of video tapes with hand-drawn titles in Mandarin or Cantonese, sometimes even Hangul-Ma (but that's Korean, so never mind that). So, if I want to, I can buy pirated copies of mainland Chinese movies for like 3-5 bucks down at the corner grocery where I by my red bean buns and udong. And, I've been able to do this for at least the last three years. And China JUST noticed?
Voodoo Girl is the bomb!
Personally, I think it'd be good if China cracked down on its piracy, domestic and foreign. Of course, when it comes to piracy concerning foreign movies (especially American) of course many people'll pull that "Oh what does Hollywood need more money for" shit. Well, it's not really your place to decide that Hollywood shouldn't get money for something it paid to make-- and it doesn't change the fact that it's PIRACY, plain and simple. It's the same piracy that hurts smaller, independant filmmakers who need the money-- the people who really do need the money --and that is the same piracy that needs to be stopped.
Last I heard, China was a communist country?!? Did that suddenly change? I would think that as a good communist, it is your duty, no moral imperitive to make movies availible for for public consumption...These black market vendors are only doing, what the producers of the movie should have done in the first place... :-)
Yeah so they are making a little money on the side, thats just capitolism right? I thought that was a good thing...From the sound of it, I would think that the American government would want to support the black market vendors duplicating chinese produced films since it only helps propogate capitolism and consumerism...
Shameless self promotion : The Misadvetures of the in
Sounds like the average Regal Cinema in five years to me...
except that: chinese ppl are poor and can't waste money for such crap like american movies.. sure chinese movies also dont lack propaganda.. but they dont try to force it on the rest of the world like americans love to do.
figured China didn't have any perception of monetery value towards such things. But since they have expressed concern, I wonder if they'll express it with the usual zeal common for their culture. Chopping off of hands maybe? Whatever form of discipline, it ought to be interesting.
...there will be a day when the NYTimes webmasters figure out what an HTTP referrer is, and start using that to check exactly where the so-called "Google partner links" are originating.
/. account, so you're not averse to the whole signing-up-for-an-account business.
Besides, it "takes all of 60 seconds effort" for you to sign up for a NYTimes account. You already signed up for a
Just for the record, I signed up for the NYTimes account (because after all, they are providing quality writing to me for free), and I have yet to receive a single piece of unsolicited email from them.
I wish people would quit trying to circumvent the signup, and just do it. Free, quality content is becoming a rarity on the web, and I prefer signing up to the alternative -- losing that free content for good.
Simpli - Your source for San Jose dedicated servers and colocation!
Oh yeah, a country where you can easily go to almost any bookstore and find a bunch of magazines that are practically dedicated to speaking ill of the US, where you can say things like that and sleep well at night, where you can openly say really whatever you damn well please about the gov't and have really nothing to worry about -- yeah, that's MUCH less free than China.
It's China that wants to be free.
Shhhhh! Don't give the RIAA, MPAA or the representive from Disney any ideas...
Just what we need Micky Mouse with and electric chair..
Shameless self promotion : The Misadvetures of the in
This is a movie PREVIEW, and normally security is indeed stricter at such events, just like here in the US.
Yet, once the movie hits the theaters as a actual release to the masses, forget about "security". Heck, we don't even have such "security" here in the US. And most pirate jobs are inside ones (the guy in the projection booth himself is the one doing the camcorder recording). With the corruption in China, one can only expect such things to be even more prevalent. And once a single copy gets out, that's all it takes.
George W. Bush
President, United States of America
It seems that despite almost no support on slashdot of any other intellectual property protection scheme, when it's the Chinese pirating American stuff it's a horrible crime. But when it's Americans pirating anyone else's works, including those by other Americans, it's something that should be protected. Make up your goddamn minds people! I personally think that the United States government has it's collective head up it's ass, but the premise for copyright is very well intentioned: give the producer of a work a temporary monopoly for their contribution to society. Back on topic... when you can honestly say that you support the MPAA, RIAA, and every other four letter organisation ending in AA it'll be fair for you to say that the Chinese pirates are wrong, but for the moment I suspect that most of the people posting about the evils of China are guilty of the same crime they are condemning.
E pluribus unum
I attended this screening in Shenzhen and did not notice any of the security measures reported in the article.
I had to hand over my mobile phone but that was it.
I didn't see anyone openly vidcaming the movie, but pirate DVD copies of Hero are readily available in Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing for about 7 Chinese yuan (US$0.80).
A dream is good. A plan is better.
I think that they think there is a difference between Chinese culture (including their films) and the hollywood pap. When using internal flights in China I have to watch Chinese films (the only time I watch them) and I am often surprised at how good they are. If I were Chinese I would be proud of the Chinese film industry. I would also want to protect it.
I do not think it is really posible to protect a film as it has to go public at some point or it serves no purpose. At some point the film will get into the hands of the ripper, he will get the first release and have it on sale as quick as the original reaches general release. He normally has Hollywood films before they are released but that is because there are more crooks in Hollywood.
The Chinese do more to combat the rippers than the Americans do, but there is less respect for IP and more of an attitude of product in China. If Hollywood would sell a good product at a fair price the rippers would be out of business.
As for the valuable creative works, they are already doing it and they know that soon Hollywood will rip their ideas off just as they have always done in the past. Like with Yojimbo = A Fistfull of Dollars and Seven Samurai = The Magnificent Seven (I know Akira Kurosawa was Japanese but the point is still true). I think the most insulting thing is that Hollywood does not even make good copies of other peoples work.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
Hey, you've posted this before.
5 14 674
4 44 9517
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=43066&cid=4
And, apparently you think exactly the same of India:
'http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=42305&cid=
I personally think that it's 100% off topic, and you've shared your experiances more than people care.
just note: usage of the word "art" is questionable in the context of recording _industry_
There are more than a billion people in China. On what basis do you consider the Chinese movie industry "fledgeling"? Is it the fact that you never see any?
I guess you probably consider the Indian movie industry as fledgeling too, for the same reasons.
If this is any indication how how we're going to be treated when seeing films in the future, then count me out.
Metal detectors in airports I can understand. It's going too far in cinemas.
-- Even if a god did exist, why the fsck should I worship it?
Hacking the Network
These stories are truly works of art.
Mod em' up! Way up!
Uniformed policemen roamed the aisles during the film. A few sat in front of the screen and watched the audience with what appeared to be night-vision binoculars.
Yes, they appeared to be night-vision goggles...
Both China and the US should find copyright and fair use rules that benefit the people as a whole. Both countries, however, seem to choose copyright rules and laws that mostly benefit a few powerful minorities.
here, try this instead since you don't want some crummy translation. Russian, my friend, a far finer language (just joking! but it doesn't sound as funny as a google translation of Portuguese)
yeah, I can even burn my freaking flag too if I want to! oh wait - that's a crime? and did you know that you're assumed guilty before proven innocent every time you get a speeding ticket? then there's this little "Patriot" Act and the DMCA which prevents freedom of speech for many people. But i guess those don't count, do they? wake up and smell the coffee dude. America stinks.
fuck you. yes why don't they all fuck you. just you and you alone. i mean really really fuck you. just so they can fuck you. after they fuck you, they'll fuck you again and again. after which, they'll fuck you just to prove to you that they can fuck you. fuck you ok?
kthxbye~
Re:So Why Dont They.... (Score:-1, Redundant)
by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 02, @02:41AM (#4582965)
do what they say, say what they mean? One thing leads to another.
[ Reply to This | Parent ]
-AC
i think you are so much more fucked than he who just got fucked. so why don't they......
fuck you. oh yes fuck you. like a fuckable fuck thing. fuck you all day long, all through the night and fuck you when its rainin'!!
oh baby. why don't they fuck you. fuck you oh yes! fuck you like the fuck you always wanted to be. fuck fuck fuck. all the fucks in the world! fuck fuck fuck. hey baby did you ever know? yes fuck fuck fuck oh yea. fuck you just cos i can fuck you baby yesyesyes!
kthxbye~!
Yours Sincerely,
The Big Bad Troll.
This is really about the movie, Hero. Producers are taking special advantage of all these special precautions cause this is supposed to be the biggest export since "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"
You will see it here in the US, and it'll make a lot of money here. This isn't for the average HK flick yet, or bad Chinese cinema...this is like a sneak preview of "The Two Towers. the US cinema showing special previews months early would probably take the same precautions...
----------
ah honey, we're all resplendent - Bill Mallonee
Microsoft concerned about misleading EULAs
Bush administration concerned about freedoms being lost
RIAA concerned about consumers losing fair-use rights
Slashdot editors concerned about editorial integrity.
Sparks:Gadget:Beer Maker
IMHO what I hear from the original poster is this:
"*Sigh* Poor Chinese, their Gov't has been holding down them for so long, and stealing all the resources and time to develop from the people for their big socialism goals, it totally justifies that they steal from someone else. *Sigh* Steal away China, we're behind you! We understand!"
IF you lived in depression era US quality wages, and someone in the 1930s showed up with a DVD player, what would you do? Well, you sure couldn't buy it. Tough stuff. Open up your economy, and pretty soon you can.
This is a chicken and egg problem. Because the Chinese Gov't decides to control the economy with a tight fist, well, that means that the Chinese populace gets screwed. Getting screwed also means NO CHEAP DVDs.
You should take that shit up with China and their fucked up economy, and not blame the rest of the world for letting their people make their own choices. Certainly blaming the free market system and saying that Chinese people are justified in stealing is saying that a)Capitalism sucks, and b)that Socialism is good, and c) stealing is an "unfortunate immoral yet justified" (LOL) act to help 'ol Socialism along. Kinda like taking it back for the people from the oppressive movie makers. What a crock. China is probably the safest country in the world to visit, and yet they have these heinous double standards when it gets in the way of the big Socialism Macarena.
Now before some Socialist nutty from Northern Europe or wherever starts ranting about the "USians" (which is their way of trying to make US Citizens an ethnic slur), let me say this. YES, the USA has double standards too. I don't support them either, so you don't really need to call me an a-hole, and assume that I am a cowboy with an assault rifle. I am an American that would like the see the Chinese people live better... and that is that.
The DMCA was just the first toe in the water, the CBDTPA is the next.
Back when the US's publishing industry was getting started they "seeded" the market by blatantly taking copyrighted works from England and selling them without paying any royalties. Charles Dickens used to complain about it bitterly.
The US industry used the revenue from this to jump start their own literature industry. As that grew and the US had more literature to export then they became more concerned about fully enforcing copyright laws.
Seems kind of strange that we can't seem to allow other countries to grow the same way we did.
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
Send those pirates to where they belong, the gulag! Or better yet, don't even bother with a trial and jury, just march them to the wall and blow them away! Yeah!!!
He's posted this many more times than three times now. Why come up with new material when the old stuff is so hard to find, and the creative limitations of his mind keep him from coming up with anything interesting any more?
He waits for stories about china so that he can post this all over again. If that last bit of his post was true, he would've died from an std by now. Not racist - but 3rd world whores, like karma whores, are filthy.
is it really so horrible to fill in some details - you can even put dummy info into the ones you don't want to provide for real.
The NYT Terms of Service document is a contract. Misrepresenting your information is fraud, a felony in all fifty U.S. states.
Besides, what do you think they are going to do? Analyse your reading habits
In theory, a publisher could exploit a loophole in its privacy policy and, when you read an article about a medical issue, notify the insurance companies. Now, when you research information about say AIDS, your insurance rates go up.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Why is this post moderated (+5, Informative) when this post with pretty much identical content was moderated (-1, Troll)?
More polite comments will be moderated up. Tip 1: Do not use any of George Carlin's seven favorite words.
I don't know if it is just me or has the meaning of piracy been changed in the past decade? I always thought it was meant stealing in terms of robbery, i.e. taking *away* something that doesn't belong to you.
But it's that taking away part that I fail to see when it comes to movies or software. If I, purely for the sake of discussion, download a movie from the internet, how is that stealing if, at the end, the owner still has the original?
Or if I were to tape a movie off a screen, how can that constitute theft if (a) the movie is still in the possession of the owner, and (b) my copy is of a significantly less quality to the original.
So maybe instead of talking about piracy, we should rather start talking about unauthorized copying, which begs a totally different question: what right does the owner of software or a movie have to tell me what I can or can't copy. Last time I checked, the only one who can tell me anything are law enforcement officials acting out the law of the land. EULA's in and by themselves can't and shouldn't be able restrict my behavior after the act of purchase.
It is time that we start waking up and realizing that we as a civilization would not be where we are now had we not copied other people's invention. Imagine somebody had patented paper hundreds of years ago and charged horrendous license fees to produce paper. It is highly arguable that such a copyright could never have been in the public interest.
It's funny how so many people, especially in the US, are so adamant about freedom of choice and capitalism as an economic system. Where are those people when it comes to preserving our rights to choose what we want to do with a product after we bought it? Where have the ideals of fair competition gone if copyright terms get extended to a point where a perpetual copyright is becoming a reality?
Patents are by their very nature monopolistic. They go against everything that is considered "holy" in a capitalist economy. The original founders of copyright laws knew that very well. But they considered the increased incentive to invent an acceptable trade-off for monopolistic behavior, *as long* as the monopoly is limited in time. Without the latter part, we might just as well say capitalism in the movie and software industry good bye.
"Light is faster than sound." - "Is that why people tend to look bright until you hear them speak?"
Let's talk. I'm tired.
Bygones?
--
Osama
I have learned a while ago that there are new technologies in the making which would embed a specific frequency in the movie projector on the screen, which would not be distinguishable by human eyes, but would render those video cameras a flickering image which made this type of preview pirating impossible. I think this might be a way to solve things out, at least for a while. As for the film reels, I guess security has greater concern. Maybe they should have hidden cameras put inside the film reels to bust out the pirates in case of breaching.
I'm really not surprised by this. Those conniving Americans -- they turn a blind eye to piracy of foreign content (even the government and military-owned factories are in on it), but zealously crack down on their domestic stuff. Just another example of their double standard and hypocricy that pervades the entire society. I'm a German businessman in the import- export business, so as you might guess, my frequent travels take me to many places around the world, on every continent. Anyhow, I wanted to share my experience in the "great" country of America, in the very part described by the article.
So, I was in Chicago last December for about a week on business. A bit of background: Chicago, like New York and a few other places, is a "Special Economic Zone" that the American government set up to try and give foreigners the illusion that America really ISN'T a drab, decaying fascist state that's economically languishing behind the rest of the world. Here, rules are relaxed and capitalism is encouraged, not surppressed. Well, let me tell you this, if this is America's best, then I'd hate to see the worst.
Anyways, when I stepped off the train from New York (which was no paradise itself, as that place has gone down the shitter since the Dutch left) I was shocked. The whole place smelled like a combination of vomit and dog shit that had been left out in the sun for a day or so. And it was probably BECAUSE there was vomit and dog shit all over. I almost retched, and I've certainly been in some sketchy places in my travels but NOTHING like this.
People spit everywhere. Trash litters the streets. I found myself looking DOWNWARD much more than looking FORWARD when I walked.
Noise pollution is endemic. It doesn't help that their infernal language consists of abrupt rapid fire tones that is a cacophony for any human ear to bear. How do they speak and listen to that shit without going crazy all day long is beyond me.
Anyways, Americans stink -- literally. There is no concept of personal hygiene whatsoever. Meetings with even top officials were hourlong sessions of having to endure hot sweaty bodies and rancid breath eminating from mouths missing a few teeth. Geez, at least use deodorant for crying out loud.
The hypocrisy, corruption, and double-standards from the highest levels of government on over are the norm at the same time America opens up to the world. Foreigners get charged as much as five times for transportation, lodging, food, and everything else.
Traffic is horrible. Rules are non-existent except for at traffic lights: red means to go fast, green means to go REALLY REALLY fast.
The American people themselve are pretty apathetic and everyone just wants to get out of that hell hole, so you see smuggling rings shipping people out hidden in truck beds and ships, all too often with tragic results.
The whole country, in my assessment is a lost case. Even the cheap labor can be found in Southeast Asia or Mexico. Same goes for pirated stuff -- SE Asia and Eastern Europe will keep on churning them out.
Anyways, the one redeeming quality were the girls. I paid $12 (about 12 Euros) for a great fuck, with a 16 year old who seemed quite new and "unblemished" if you get my drift. Boy, was she tight, made all the right noises, sucked and fucked all night long and let me cum all over her. Much better than even the vaunted Dutch whores, and worlds apart from anything in Berlin or in France. Best bargain I have EVER found in my life!
So yeah, screw the hell hole that's America. It's a lost cause of a country suspsended by a hollow facade of so-called new capitalism that's just show more than anything.
Why can't you understand that just because you can convert the arithmetic value of a year's wages in China to US Dollars, it doesn't actually mean that it has the same *monetary* value? There's this thing called "cost of living", you see. It turns out that for the most part, barring extremes of wealth and poverty, everything consts *proportionally* the same wherever you are in the world.
I have never lived in China, but as an American living in Canada I am quite familar with buying imported American goods. Logically, if this mythical adjustment for "cost of living" really exists, when I buy a book, movie, or CD from America, it should cost just the same in Canadian dollars as it does in American dollars. But it doesn't! It costs 1.5x as much because Canadian dollars are worth less than American dollars. This is of course one of the reasons why there are many more Canadians in American than Americans in Canada.
Anyone think China actually believes what propaganda they spew needs to buy some swampland in Flordia.
Who wants to watch crappy Chinese movies anyway?
Who would pirate them. This is just another example of MPAA propoganda.
"Movie IP makes so much sense, that the Chinese are even trying to protect it. Just watch, that communist Stalin, I mean Stallman will soon be copyrighting his works, just so he can enforce his IP. Mark my words, he will copyright his works, and then you will see."
- Anonymous MPAA insider
When another person can control what I do with my own equipment, with my own computers, can control what I write on the paper I *buy*. When they can say that a particular labor I may wish to do is illegal, then I am a slave.
Copyright is an infringment on my human rights. Copyright is a monopoly. Copyright is censorship. Copyright makes me into a slave.
How could anyone who likes Atlas Shrugged not see this stark fact?
Such a horrible evil could only be accepted if the benefits were worth the horror. Once, I would have said 'yes'. Now, my answer is slowly changing. The current copyright censorship&control regime is detestable.
Let Rearden make his metal, but the moment he discloses its recipe publically, by what right shall he gain the ability to say to me 'thou shaln't use this recipee'?
Let Ayn write her book, but the moment she distributes it publically.. How can she claim that she has lost any rights to control what I do with it. Unless the default state of humanity is control and slave, she never had any ability to control me in the first place.
put them on the p2p networks so everyone can enjoy them!!
I just got some mod points while posting so I've slapped him with a Troll -1!
Talk about timing!
With the destruction of traditional culture, movies and other media more or less required if you want to participate culturally these days.
I don't think it's a good thing at all, but that's the way things have shaken out.
DNA just wants to be free...
I mean really, WHAT the fuck are they teaching in school these days?
Teacher always said "look both ways before you cross the Square..."
Before you wander off on generalizations, consider than a Chinese in the market for a pirated DVD already has a DVD player and a TV! These are not poor peasants. Pirates steal because they can, not deperate economic need.
BOFH excuse #216:
What office are you in? Oh, that one. Did you know that your building was built over the universities first nuclear research site? And wow, are'nt you the lucky one, your office is right over where the core is buried!
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