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China Seizes 13 Million Pirated Discs
TechFreep writes "The Chinese government is waging a 100-day battle against software and media piracy, the largest such effort ever conducted. After launching the effort on July 15, Chinese police and copyright officials have raided 537,000 illegal publication markets and distributors in major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Liaoning Province. Of these, government officials have closed down 8,907 shops and street vendors, 481 publishing companies and 942 illegal websites." This article in China Daily quotes vendors of legal media products gushing over their increased sales.
537,000 illegalmarkets and distributors? I know there are a lot of people in China, but damn, can that possibly be right? If they bust everyone, the US could lose its coveted "most behind bars" status.
My biggest problem with this is that the majority of this stuff is american, and its banned over there. They litterally can't get this stuff any way other than piracy, and yet the american movie companies are all for it. I don't understand it. I say if we're going to bring down communism we should do it via undermining their contries authority and showing them now the non-commies have it...
only 90 bazillion more to go! That picture from TFA is wild, though (mountain of CDs being crushed by steamrollers). That looks like some kinda explosion at a CD store.
stuff |
I wonder if my "The Shield - Season 5" bootleg is still going to ship!?
Where else are we going to see blurbs like this on DVD covers?
full text:
The Chinese government is waging a 100-day battle against software and media piracy, the largest such effort ever conducted.
After launching the effort on July 15, Chinese police and copyright officials have raided 537,000 illegal publication markets and distributors in major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Liaoning Province. Of these, government officials have closed down 8,907 shops and street vendors, 481 publishing companies and 942 illegal websites.
Two of the largest pirated media operations in Liaoning Province, one located near Shenyang's Sanhao Street, the other in the Science and Technology Park of Liaoning University, were among those targeted.
These two centres provided over 90 per cent of all pirated compact disks to the city residents, said Wang Hongyu, head of Shenyang Anti-Pirated Enforcement Team. But now you can hardly find any pirated products there.
The crack down was initiated by more than 10 ministries and national departments, including the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Security, the State Administration of Press and Publication, and the National Copyright Administration. Each of the 13 million illegal CDs and DVDs that were seized up to this point in the raids were destroyed on September 16th.
Ive got nothing against China, hey I love their food. But why every few years when they roll out the steamroller and drive over a pile of software and music, is it such big news. All of the warez sites there are up and running just fine, its such a transparent attempt at fending off trade lawsuits its not funny.
It is suicidal for America to not tie very strong IP enforcement to its trade agreements with countries like China. Most of what we produce domestically is IP from music to code to drug designs. We are at an inherent disadvantage then, if we allow them to dump tens of billions of dollars of cheap crap in our stores, but allow their locals to run wild with our IP.
I don't like it, but that's just the way it is.
If you want to reduce our dependency on IP and strong foreign IP laws, go start a manufacturing business that produces in America at rates that can replace China and Taiwan.
Until then, I am glad to see China stepping things up, as it means we aren't getting shafted so badly anymore.
government officials have closed down 8,907 shops and street vendors, 481 publishing companies and 942 illegal websites.
Shutting down 942 'illegal' websites means nothing purely because it's China. Wikipedia is illegal there, so is Slashdot probably.
100day vs 0day
Hmm, at least numbers are on their side.
ADVENTURERS! - ANTIHERO FOR HIRE - CARDMASTER CONFLICT
... what about all the online illegal p2p'ing going on? If the Chinese government could establish caps on that, it would be much more effective since the pirated data will just be transcribed onto a CD/DVD and sold.
DVD-R is the future! You can put 7(!) times the AVI on it than on CD-R!
I really like it that the Chinese care as much about quality as I do. Screeners are often to big for single CD-R these days...
We so horny. We only use software for porn. Solly cholly. We boom boom long time.
So after shutting down those 8,907 shops and street vendors, 481 publishing companies and 942 illegal websites, what are the remaining 526,670 all about? Are they counting individual disks?
Done with slashdot, done with nerds, getting a life.
Oh, don't forget this article that states they were going to send out one million spam warnings to spammers. One million spammers? Here in the United States, it seems to be 9 or 10 parties that create 99% of the spam. Why is it so different in China? Is one in every thousand Chinese citizens a spammer?
Perhaps this is just another law that China will use to silence people (like I mentioned here)?
Speak out against the government and have your apartment ransacked for pirated DVDs. They find them everytime and you don't have to worry about a trial -- you were ready to distribute them! Makes the government look good and invites companies to come to China. Win-win situation for the government!
My work here is dung.
With Vista coming out and the Chinese having to actually purchase software can we expect revenue to grow again?
I hate it when the media misuse the word "pirate". You'd think Slashdot could at least get it right.
Illegal copies sold at retail are counterfit copies, not "pirated copies".
Piracy is when you copy content yourself for free. With piracy, no one profits off someone else's hard work.
Counterfitting is when someone runs illegal copies and then sells the copies for their own profit.
It's a subtle difference, but an important one.
Moderator hint: a comment is neither "Flamebait" nor "Troll" if it is true.
What about the NYC subway? That's where I... um, that's where I see a lot of people buying screeners.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Pirating for money is a far different thing than copying for free. That includes Pirate Bay, as they seem to have ads on their site. I have a real problem with people copying music/games/etc and selling it. If they choose to put it up for free--I have a lot less of a problem with that.
*checks favorite Chinese "freeware" site* Sweet.
Ebay, announces the cancelation of 537,000 auctions for "genuine" dvds by the seller for "item no longer available"
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Counterfitting is passing it off as genuine. If the customers knows it is copied and still buys it--that's just for-profit piracy.
Movie companies, software companies etc, are more interested in dollars than some cold-war era politics. So you can't sell to them legally now? So what! In a few years things will likely soften and you'll be able to sell movies etc to China. When that happens you don't want a strong culture of copying. Besides, by ganging up with the regime, you're more likely to get a softened response and get the markets going sooner rather than later.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
So what is the plan to provide daily subsistance to the millions of people who rely on selling pirated disks for buck or two on the street? Millions of people have found a sustainable enterprise by re-selling the popular songs and movies that flood the world, and they rely on it for their daily food and shelter. If this enterprise is taken away, what alternatives are there for these people to survive?
Do any of these raided companies include Sonmay?
On one hand I'd like to see Sonmay go down because it takes away profits from legal retailers by making the packaging look similar to a legit copy. On othe other hand, where am I supposed to get copies of the long out-of-print Orchestral Game Concert CDs now?
Starkle, starkle, little twink.
Yeah, where will I find my copy of Star War The Third Gathers: The Backstroke of the West? Enjoy screen shots here.
My work here is dung.
If 1 billion people actually paid for their software, music, games etc just think of how many more jobs that would create in the West. Not quite sure why you're on the side of 0day. If nobody pays for someone elses hard work, what have they done to deserve keeping it?
Looks to me like TechFreep doesn't deserve to be slashdotted.
The article they are referring to was last updated on 2006-02-06! Which also means TechFreep edited the story considerably to add mention of recent dates. They even used the same Febuary photo.
Therefore I would not be trusting any information from this source.
Only on SlashDot: "China Daily"=reliable source. Notice the "*.cn" extension; if you buy the crackdown, I know a rich, recently widowed friend in the Congo who needs your help. (Also, any time you see a "100-day" anything, that's a clear sign that it's pure PR.)
Only 987.000.000 to go!
--- "To pee or not to pee, that is the question." ---
Charging $15.99+ for movies though, only the richest of chinese would even be able to afford movies, when the average yearly income is $800
537,000 markets raided but they only came up with 10,000 shops to raid? Who is lying here? or maybe we should ask why BSA's biggest office is not in China?
Fred Grott(aka shareme) http://mobilebytes.wordpress.com
"...government officials have closed down 8,907 shops and street vendors, 481 publishing companies and 942 illegal websites."
Sure they closed them now, but in a few days they will be back at their old tricks, albiet under new management. I bet you my entire collection of bootleg anime that a well placed bribe or the guaranteed employment of some politician's or magnate's mongoloid cousin will earn these pirates a clean bill of health from said "government officials."
Remember that this is a nation that won't let it's districts/states perform their own productivity audits because they tie the magistrate's pay to economic performance. Needless to say that when they did allow these provinces to do their own evaluations they made Arthur Anderson's accounting practices seem conservative. The last year that they did it the national aggregate GDP was several points higher thant he official numbers from the central accounting office. WOW!
When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
.. versions and on to upgrade all the shops to the latest version of pirated software ;)
_Vishal www.squad9.com
Does this mean that my chinese source for windows XP might go from $10 USD to $15 USD?
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
So that's what happened to the 12,999,999 copies of Gigli for HD-DVD!
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Much as I don't like it myself, it is a good thing. Thieving needs to stop.
The government can't save you.
100 is clearly a larger number than 0, that's all I'm saying.
ADVENTURERS! - ANTIHERO FOR HIRE - CARDMASTER CONFLICT
when the average yearly income is $800
Hey, according to Sony that's no excuse.
They should just work longer hours even if it means getting another job.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
let me bring u guys some insight of this crap as a chinese its purely a show, and thats it no one buys this discs anyway. the main consumers of intellctual property in china are aged between 15 - 35, and for these ppl, as long as they hv broadband access, they know how to load up their harddisc with p0rns frm da internet. watching japanese av frm a disc was so old school ... jst some rural ppl mite still doing that.
I wonder if it has anything to do with the US.EU and others filing a suit against China for unfair trade balance and trade practices. USA Today had a story about it yesterday.
http://bi-bri.com The R.I.A.A can chew me..
Even Lars Ulrich knows it's wrong!
My blog
"Arrrr, me disks!"
Just another raid...
;-) however, even though the police targets crimes, the goverment program of "cleaning up" regions is the main act that should be discussed. "cleaning up" would mean rebuilding about a 1/3 of a region (consider that a region keeps from 4 to 30 mil. people), this usually causes problems and can be seen as the major task of the police.
If you haven't noticed the police in china regulary does raides in china.
Usually prostitution have been the prime target since it have been a problem through out the country since the 90's. But other types of crimes, of wide dispersion can be targeted, the most unusual i've experienced is the act of crossing the street...but.. it was never successful
Basically, that is the only task of the police, keeping the calm when rebuilding. Contrary to western belief, this isn't done by force but by replacing the standard force with uncorrupted officers that files, and keeps a steady eye on all disturbances happening on *all* streets.
Removing prostitution, illegal street sales, like crapy CD's is just a welcomed side effect.
That said, the effect of the "raids" are generally weaker then the economically forces. Prostitution in shanghai have never declined and sales in beijing keeps a steady going, but in this case a real change have been seen and i would guess it will keep a decline in illegal cd sales in up to 5 years, that's the effect of the tough penalties..
In unrelated news, Chinese P2P traffic and writable CD/DVD sales both sky-rocket.
Faith is a willingness to accept something w/o complete proof and to act on it. Reason allows you to correct that faith.
Book burnings are never a good sign. This is a deal between thieves and is hollow throughout. From the Article:
"If piracy can be controlled and more customers purchase our copyrighted products, we can provide more of these products for cheaper prices in return in the future," said Feng Hongtao, manager of Dongke Audio and Video Chain Store.
Translation: If you let us own your culture, despite all previous behavior and evidence to the contrary, we promise to be nice and sell it to you cheap.
You:
It is suicidal for America to not tie very strong IP enforcement to its trade agreements with countries like China. Most of what we produce domestically is IP from music to code to drug designs. We are at an inherent disadvantage then, if we allow them to dump tens of billions of dollars of cheap crap in our stores, but allow their locals to run wild with our IP. ... If you want to reduce our dependency on IP and strong foreign IP laws, go start a manufacturing business that produces in America at rates that can replace China and Taiwan.
Any trade with China is immoral, impractical and threatens our freedom. It is impractical to compete with slave labor, which is what China has to offer. It is immoral and impractical to support trade which destroys your own free industrial base. It is further impractical to expect co-operation from leaders who enslave their own people. The more dependent we are, the more power they have. Unless the free nations agree that it's wrong to help China's leaders, we will all end up like China's people. Finally, there is no greater threat to your freedom than embracing "strong IP laws" as a substitute for moral government.
There is no such thing as IP and general statements are meaningless. To make sense, you must address the real issues of trademark, copyright and patents. The general urge to strengthen IP laws has given us disastrous legislation which has outlawed legitimate domestic competition. Even if China was free, their abuse of patents and trademark would put us at a tremendous disadvantage. Factories in China will continue to disregard patents and violate trademarks at peak efficiency because they have no respect for such things to begin with. This little DVD burning show only punishes the people forced to work in those factories who won't be able to afford US and European entertainment for a while because their masters don't pay them well enough. Copyright enforcement will not effect the balance of trade and can do more harm than good by eliminating a press that was reproducing US propaganda outside of government control.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
It is the users of Pirate Bay who are pirating content.
Pirate Bay itself is just telling the users where they might look to get some content to pirate, which (so far) is not illegal in Sweden.
Sera
Slashdot, where armchair scientists get shouted down and armchair theologians get modded up.
You don't like to pedantic? On Slashdot? C'mon man, sure you do! It's fun!
Never eat more than you can lift -- Miss Piggy
If China is seizing illegal CDs, maybe you should seize the day and have an adventure in Israel this winter... free. And unlike pirated discs, this is a perfectly legal way to have a great time. Taglit-birthright israel with Sachlav Educational Experience. Registration is right NOW, and will close in less than a week. If you're eligible (click the link to find out), you can have an amazing and uplifting experience in Israel this winter, instead of downloading MP3s and breaking the law. Hey, this post ain't offtopic: I used the words "China" and "CDs" in this post, not to mention that I talked about MP3s, all of which are definitely technical subjects that belong in this thread. Heh heh heh...
Looking at the picture from the article, now I understand why they call it "Compact" Disk ;-)
Speak out against the government and have your apartment ransacked for pirated DVDs. They find them everytime and you don't have to worry about a trial -- you were ready to distribute them! Makes the government look good and invites companies to come to China. Win-win situation for the government!
Hell, consider the numbers. 550 thousand distributors, 13 million discs. That makes each bootlegger selling what, 25 discs?
Sounds more like they raided everyone and just picked up the ones that were making trouble or that had tried to search for freedom on the internet.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
gotta wonder if we'll see these street vendors at the next Body Worlds exhibit ;(
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=5553329
In a communist society, what is the benefit of protecting another governments copyright business model, and businesses?
An American manufacturer copied the design of a loom from an English company and started producing wool. Others stole the design and pretty soon the American wool industry was booming. Why? Was American wool that much better? Could we produce more wool?
No on both counts. We did it cheaper and had a domestic market that couldn't afford anything but US made wool. What was exported was STILL cheaper than English wool. British wool was driven into a niche of "high quality" while Americans got rich on low-cost goods.
Moral? High Quality is the last refuge of the losing side.
Here will be an old abusing of God's patience and the king's English.
All in the subject.
"The Chinese government is waging a 100-day battle against software and media piracy"
...
1) Wait 100 days
2) Become a "pirate"
3)
4) Profit!
Olrik
Sweet! I guess this means that software will become much cheaper because the corporations won't be losing money in lost sales due to piracy!
Right?
Is one in every thousand Chinese citizens a spammer?
I could easily believe that there are a million comprimised machines that are being used as spam relays. If they actually knew where the person who was running the spam network lived, they would get raided, not an email.
Should be shut down.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Well they looked genuine but had nothing on them. The chinese ebayers yahoo email account was dead too Ebay will be getting some bad press soon.
Today being International Talk Like A Pirate Day, ya bunch o' scallywags.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Argghh...It be a said day when me Maties have thier booty plundered......Weigh anchor, there be Scervy sea dogs Ahoy.
Shiver me timbers, Kyoto will not be enoguh to stop global warmin at this rate Matey. You can join us or walk the plank.
for all the poor chaps that didn't pay up and got busted. I guess it helps if you know someone working for the police.
If 1 billion people actually paid for their software, music, games etc just think of how many more jobs that would create in the West.
None.
Here's why:
For damn near zero marginal cost, they can sell the same damn thing over and over again. That means huge bonuses for management and then they streamline the process a bit more and fire a few more employees.
Yet another vulnerability in the house of cards that is IP a previous poster mentioned.
I would hate to be doing anything tolerated but illegal in 2007. They are going to be cracking down on anything that might make them look bad in 2008. Just wait for 2009 and everything will be back to normal.
Learn to love Alaska
Like in Vietnam, or Cuba, or Afghanistan, or Iraq, or...
Once in a while the police will raid the place to show that they're cracking down on the illegal software business. They will keep an eye on the place for a couple of weeks and after that just give up. After that, the vendors will just take up their usual spots again and it will be business as usual. It seems like this cycle just goes on every year with no real progress being made, and I have a feeling that it's the same in China.
All those stores would be open again in a month, selling all their stuff like nothing has happened. It's just a publicity stunt and nothing else.
Here's some real reasons: 1) they don't own the enterprise doing the manufacture. 2) they aren't getting a big enough cut 3) they don't like people competing with their own operations. :-)
If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
You may not have noticed, but more recently Disney has been getting a pirate makeover. The Black Pearl was simply the beginning!
Read my posting here, where I detail how they clubbed 50,000 dogs to death... Sometimes in front of the owners as they were walking them.
Until they do that to the pirates, they will always exist. And I don't think piracy is worthy of clubbing. :)
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
All companies operate this way, it's a basic function of economics. Whether you're an entertainment company, a building contractor, or a car manufacturer, if you don't obey this incredibly simple principle, you're out of business next year.
Why do people have such trouble with this? Is free stuff really worth looking like an idiot?