Slashdot Mirror
China Slams US Piracy Complaint
bingoathome writes with a link to a BBC article on China's criticism of the US over its complaint to the WTO. The Bush administration is breaking its long-standing policy of backroom conversations with Beijing to condemn the country's continued 'failure to address copyright piracy and counterfeiting.' "The US says that China's failure to enforce copyright laws is costing software, music and book publishers billions of dollars in lost sales ... The US has been threatening a WTO complaint against China since 2005. It said on Tuesday that the two cases had been submitted to the WTO. One case claims that Beijing's poor enforcement of copyright and trademark protections violates WTO rules. The other contends that illegal barriers to hamper sales of US films, music and books. "
"this is another case of classic US unilateralism"
Whoa, whoa, there cowboy. This is not "US unilateralism" this is "US is playing by the accepted international rules". The WTO has rules and procedures for trade and resolving disputes. That's the whole reason why it was created. It's always been a multi-national organization. China read the rules and ASKED TO JOIN KNOWING THE RULES AHEAD OF TIME. They knew what they were getting into. They agreed "Yes, you can sue us in WTO courts". And now it's happening, not a big shock. The US has complained to them for years and years about pirating, and they didn't change. So now the US is suing. The US isn't breaking the system, this is how the system is supposed to work. Claiming that this is "unilateralism" is like saying I'm a "unilateralist" if my neighbor smashes my car window and I sue him in court. That's not acting unilaterally, that's acting within the system. The US has been successfully sued under WTO rules many times, where the countries that sued us unilateralists? So don't cry foul now when China's being hit.
And for all the people who say, "How dare the US sue over issue X, don't they realize they're violating Y and Z?", you need to learn more about the WTO and trade disputes. Essentially all the member of the WTO break the rules to some degree or another and the more they trade the more they break. That's just the reality of trade. Countries just have to pick and choose their fights in the WTO. The reason why they added a court system to the WTO rules was because in the past trade disputes always break down into an endless series of arguments about which country is more "justified" in their actions. It's like some bad argument between married couples:
Husband: "What happened to your car? Why is it in the shop? Did you forget to check the oil again?"
Wife: "Well I don't know, I was too busy picking up Timmy at school because you forgot to get him!"
Husband: "Well I forget things because I can't sleep due to your snoring all night."
Wife: "Snoring? How can you hear me snoring when you're drunk all the time?"
Husband: "I drink so I don't have to hear you nag."
Wife: "I wouldn't nag if you'd just fix the porch."
Husband: "I never wanted to get that porch in the 1st place."
Wife: "Well I never wanted to move here"
Etc.
Trade disputes go the same way. There's an endless list of potential complaints with both sides trying to act more righteous. Let's just try to stick to the subject at hand. China signed the treaties including treaties on pirating, China is violating the treaties, the US is using the dispute mechanism that China agreed to. It's all on the up and up.
The moment China will start caring is the moment copyrighted materials from THEIR country are being counterfeited/p2p'd EN MASSE, WORLDWIDE just like the American MAFIAA is currently experiencing in China. I'm sure copyright infringement/filesharing is done on a relatively minor scale, certainly not to the extent of Hollywood materials.
Once the tables turn, we'll start to see the Chinese MAFIAA (if one even exists??) pushing their national gov't to complain to the WTO for sanctions against other countries, but never before then.