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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.
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
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.
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...
Have you ever considered the possibility that the huge multinational corporation that produce movies want to keep things the way they are? China's slave, er, child, er inexpensive labor force helps them to maintain their astronomical profits.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
*checks favorite Chinese "freeware" site* Sweet.
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...
China is not a communist country. They are an authoritarian fascist regime.
The soviet union with Lenin was an example of something a bit more communist, and Cuba regime resembles communism even more.
All of them share some degree of authoritarism, but that is not a needed or unique characteristic of a communist country.
Aside from the clarification... why would you want to bring down communism in another country?
Do you think that the autodetermination principle is not a good thing to respect?
It's one thing to choose to trade with countries with which you share ideology, but trying to force other independent countries into doing things the way you do, looks pretty authoritarian itself. And it would be hilarious to do that, in the name of democracy.
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?
China's not communist by any reasonable definition of the word. Their welfare state makes America's look comprehensive - no state education, no state healthcare, no unemployment benefit. You're on your own, pal. Private enterprise is common and becoming more so, and people have the right to own property. It's not communist, it's just got a very authoritarian government that calls itself communist.
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." ---
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.
"showing them now the non-commies have it"
I agree, but are our movies the best way to show how the non-commies have it? Tomorrow's DVD releases:
* "Stay Alive": Americans are so bored with serial murder that they use video games to spice it up.
* "Grease": Yes, Grease. Americans stay in high school until they are well past 30 and sting songs while doing heavily choreographed dance numbers.
* "Avatar: The Last Airbender": How Americans view China - I bet they'll get a kick out it!
* "Stick It": Home, family, country - nothing is as important as winning a gymnastics competition.
What surprises me is that none of tomorrow's releases are the "blow 'em up big" movies. Was Miami Vice already released on DVD?
The previous comment is purposely vague and generalized, but all of the facts are completely true.
"Aside from the clarification... why would you want to bring down communism in another country? Do you think that the autodetermination principle is not a good thing to respect? It's one thing to choose to trade with countries with which you share ideology, but trying to force other independent countries into doing things the way you do, looks pretty authoritarian itself. And it would be hilarious to do that, in the name of democracy." You must be new here. Let me welcome you to the US.
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.
Even Lars Ulrich knows it's wrong!
My blog
China's not communist by any reasonable definition of the word. Their welfare state makes America's look comprehensive - no state education, no state healthcare, no unemployment benefit. You're on your own, pal. Private enterprise is common and becoming more so, and people have the right to own property. It's not communist, it's just got a very authoritarian government that calls itself communist.
Shh, I hope our government doesn't take any lessons from them. Though we'll just arrange our system where people still have freedom of speech, and can blog and complain on the internet with all the millions of other US residents. Heck, we can even still do our voting along our tradional lines since it's understood by those in power and it's hard for your average disgrunted citizen to actually change anything. They have to form a group or party and go through our organized political process. That weeds out all the lazy right there. Everyone who won't go through the "democratic" process can just be labeled an extremist and ignored by most of the citizenery.
"Arrrr, me disks!"
Did you see me use the word "Communist" in that post?
China uses slave labor. Political prisonors who are forced to work are modern day slaves. China uses child labor. That's what I was talking about.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
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.
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
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.
I live in Uruguay, but I might as well be living in the US, we are about to sign a free trade agreement that basically imposes that everything that is law in the US regarding copyrights, and patents, should become law here.
That means, of course, that the FTA will be good for our beef exports to the USA, but kill any attempt to develop new industries, like biotechnology and biopharma (where we could have a bit of a head start in the region), through patent laws that do not adapt to our reality.
That is because the socialist government elected here is not _that_ socialist to start with, and is willing to play ball, otherwise we could even get a place in the list of countries to liberate (ok, the low priority list, we don't have any oil).
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
I live in Uruguay, but I might as well be living in the US,
Well, I correct myself, thinking it through, it's not the same to live in my country as in the US, we might be starting to have all the _problems_ of the US system, but not the money advantages.
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.
Correct!
Their welfare state makes America's look comprehensiveOf course.
- no state education,Lie, there is a 9-year compulsory education in China without tuition, you still need to pay some fee though.
no state healthcare,Lie. But most of the Private enterprise don't pay insurance.
no unemployment benefit.Lie. Do you mind a quick google?
You're on your own, pal.What do you expect? Rely on the party and government?
Private enterprise is common and becoming more so, and people have the right to own property.Is there anything wrong with private enterprise? Hasn't the free world been working hard to bring this into reality?
It's not communist, it's just got a very authoritarian government that calls itself communist.partially agree.
There is a spark in every single flame bait point.
"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
China wants to protect its domestic film and video industry from cheap foreign imports. It's the usual mix of local politics, cultural and economic imperatives.
China would also like to be a net exporter of culture. It doesn't need to be told how successful that has been, politically and economically, for the West.
The American studios think in terms of worldwide production and distribution. You may not have noticed, but Disney has been getting a multicultural and Asian make-over.
Mulan was simply the beginning.
This is a frasmework under which deals can be made.
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 ----
Sorry, I meant no free state education. And as for the unemployment benefit, I was just going by what people have told me. My point was that China's society is set up very differently from what most in the West think of as communism, with full employment, cradle-to-grave welfare, etc. etc.
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
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.
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.
I meant they _share_ some degree of authoritarism. Of course, all of them are authoritarian but to a different degree. Cuba does have authoritarism, but it can't be compared to China, where everything you do can get you jailed or executed. The URSS, through its history, went through different phases, all authoritarian off course, but different.
About forcing other countries to do things your way, is horrendous, not hilarious. Overthrowing a government and installing your own, and then say that you do it in the name of democracy, yes, it's something to laugh at, even if it's pathetic.
-------------
Como se puede notar claramente, el inglés no es mi lengua materna.
Yo decía que _comparten_ algún grado de autoritarismo. Distinto grado en cada caso, por supuesto. Cuba tiene problemas de autoritarismo, por supuesto, pero no existe el nivel de opresión de China, donde no se puede hacer nada sin ser objeto de represión. La Unión Soviética ha pasado por distintos grados en distintas épocas, y es verdad, siempre fue bastante malo.
Forzar a otros países a seguir tu ideología es horroroso, no hilarante. Cambiar el gobierno de otro país por uno que te gusta, y luego decir que lo hacés en el nombre de la democracia, sí, tiene una ironía tal que es para cagarse de risa.
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?