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China Rejects US Piracy Claims As "Groundless"
eldavojohn writes "Earlier this month, a United States piracy list fingered China, Russia, and Canada as the first, second and third worst governments (respectively) for enforcing copyright policy in the world. China's Foreign Ministry has rejected these claims as 'groundless' just before meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Monday and Tuesday in Beijing to address copyright policy. The official Chinese statement read, 'The involved US Congress members should respect the fact and stop making groundless accusations against China.' The plan nevertheless remains to use the visit to pressure China into overhauling its failed attempts to curb piracy, since software piracy in China appears to be a social norm, with the Chinese government possibly even leading by example."
Yeah, I guess all the pirate VCDs and DVDs at the flea markets all over California aren't full of professionally-pressed pirate video copies from China? Oh wait, yes they are. In fact, they're all over eBay and Amazon, too. China isn't just "failing to crack down on copyright piracy" (per the RTFA), they have institutionalized copyright infringement for profit all over their country and it's probably a substantial slice of their GNP. China is doing about as much to stop "piracy" as they are to stop anything else they're doing. For example, executing their head of food safety over taking bribes to ignore unsafe food for export instead of actually doing something to prevent the next guy from doing the same thing.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I am not in favor of getting rid of software or media copyrights. I think there is an absolute place and need for them. But I am in favor of greatly reducing their lengths, which have grown way out of control. In today's world, a copyright should not last for more than maybe 10 years.
FOSS and traditionally copyrighted software can and do exist together quite fine. And they also play nice together, giving software developers and users lots of choice and possibilities.
Software PATENTS, on the other hand, are just horrible and should go away. They destroy all innovation, create needless complexity, chill all markets, ruin consumer choice, and hurt players of all sizes.
I praise the Chinese government for standing up against U.S. corporations pushing their desires through their puppets.
I think you need to restrict your statement to just software. While, yes, the RIAA and MPAA are probably pressuring the US government to do this, I do not think the response to ignore it altogether for music and movies helps. There's a happy medium somewhere and it's not the abhorrent 90 to 120 years that the US has while I equally think that the Chinese government's "0 day" copyright protection would make music and movie production a near impossible profit in China (movies would be right out while musicians would need to depend on only live performances). Just think how much China's Hollywood or music scene would dwarf the United States' if they had an enforced ~20 year copyright policy. After all there are four times as many citizens there than here. Shouldn't they be producing roughly four times the amount of music and movies the United States does? I know they have more than I see but I get the feeling they see more American media due at least in some part because of this (note: not entirely).
For software, I have a similar attitude about the length of copyright but I think what you're overlooking is that a lot of companies start in software because it's copyrighted and later end up funding or contributing back to open source. There aren't a lot of Red Hats or Canonicals and even then those have their own in house code projects. I don't see licenses like the GPL or BSD as "stopgaps," I see them as a solution to coexistence and freedom to decide what your creation becomes. You want to hobble it with a copyright license of insane length proportions? Go right ahead, it is America "land of the free" after all.
My work here is dung.
Umm, I hate to point this out to you but Google is just as effective for finding pirated mp3s (or anything really). It wouldn't be much of a search engine if it selectively indexed stuff. Have a look.
I can't really speak for China or Russia, but Canada is no more a haven for pirating than the US. What makes Canada a "problem" is that they have some of the best laws in the world regarding the privacy of its citizens. So that means that a corporation can't just go to an ISP and demand information on a random user and have their account suspended without due process. So Canada's problem is that it values people over corporations.
Oh, and for the record, I'm an American, not Canadian; and yes, I am jealous.
What for? That'd just be a waste. You're thinking in terms of artificial scarcity.
There's only so many hours in the day and the US alone produces about two movies a day. Do you watch two movies a day?
I don't think of movies as some generic commodity. I think of movies as cultural pieces of art -- the same way I think of books and video games. One video game is not of the same quality as another video game nor would you argue that we should slow publishing books to one per week since that's how long it takes the average consumer to consume one. Instead, I recognize that here in the USA I have a movie collection with Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream, Vasquez's Invader Zim and Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi. While the normal populace views this as depressing, childish and boring (respectively) I do not. And when I watch a Chinese blockbusters I can't help but wonder if there's some equivalent to this diversity of movies in China that just isn't getting translated or does it not exist at all since these things would be pirated so easily?
As it turns out, I approve of very little of the United States video production. That's why I'm kind of in favor of keeping some copyright term to make sure that the very rare and odd 1% of video I enjoy remains in a healthy system. Not the complete lack of enforcement in China and not the insane duration of the United States. I would argue for a happy medium any day of the week along these lines.
Copyright rewards distributors (copiers) far more than creators.
I cannot and won't dispute this. But I think a more accurate saying is that distributors make more money for doing less work and original creation than the creators do. While it's imbalanced, their distribution does put some cash via royalties back into the originator's pocket. And it's this method that really makes the money for the creators. If you take this away altogether, then you're going to see some undetermined amount less production from the creators. And it's not like the distributors don't take risks. Everyone takes risks, even the creators. A distributor cannot simply say "I'm going to release all movies ever" and try to compete with everyone else. Maybe that's part of the problem, I don't know. The contracts for distribution confuse and anger me often, especially when it comes to ad based streaming online.
My work here is dung.
I don't get how Canada can be in the top three while Thailand isn't Thailand basically has the same views on copyright as China and Russia do, but Canadians pay a "copyright tax" on all blank media, which goes to the media industries. The media industries are being paid. What's the problem. (I'm not Canadian.)
Put identity in the browser.
Why do China and North Korea always deny everything with such strong wording, or make threats rather than say something like "We will look into this matter further"? They do it even when its obvious they did something or FAILED to do something. China : QUOTE : 'The involved US Congress members should respect the fact and stop making groundless accusations against China.' North Korea : QUOTE : "If there were indications that the sinking was our doing, then the whole thing is an act — theatrics by the South Koreans to implicate us," QUOTE : "If (South Korea) tries to deal any retaliation or punishment, or if they try sanctions or a strike on us .... we will answer to this with all-out war"
That brings me to an interesting point, / . is just "the ramblings of socially-inept, technology-literate news-mongers".
Flamebait? He stated the truth. But he also left out this part: The US is so vehement to protects its music, movies, and so forth because, like Rome at the end of its life, the country has nothing left to offer the world except entertainment. The US wants to protect that cashflow, else it would go bankrupt.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
I hope to see Michael Geist on the list of great Canadians someday. I would put him ahead of a number of Prime Ministers / Premiers of the last 25 years.
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
In my country, people download pirated copies from the Internet for free. They will in China too, as Internet continues to propagate and the Great Firewall continues to be bypassed in more and more effective ways.
And why would they? Enforce copyright law -> send money to Hollywood, don't enforce copyright -> money stays home. It acts as an effective toll barrier, helping Chinese economy grow. We should learn from that, not condemn it.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
TVs? nope. (not on the map)
Radios? nope. (not on the map)
Computers? nope. (very distant 5th)
Refrigerators? nope. (not even on the map)
Steel? nope. (distant 4th)
Automobiles? nope. (distant 4th)
Trucks? nope. (distant 3rd)
Furniture? Nope.
So, if the USA basically doesn't make anything of significant value in quantity, HOW is it #2 in manufacturing?
Weapons.
Number #1 with a BULLET.
The USA's biggest industry is the exercise of its imperial reach and the development of devices that do not produce wealth (outside the imperial model of invasion and theft), which means that its method of acquiring resources has met the law of diminishing returns and is in a state every empire faces prior to its collapse. (Tainter, Joseph A. The Collapse of Complex Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1988.)
Don't get all huffy at me, I'm just reporting the news...
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
I like to support people that make things. They just don't let me. So I steal it. When there is no way to buy a product with specific features, but the pirated copy has those features by default, then the pirated copy is both worth more and costs less.
If they'd just make it available for purchase in no worse format than I can steal, then I'd buy it.
Or, to make it a car analogy, I can buy a Ford for $20,000 or get a kit from a guy down the street that costs me $2000 and is faster with better mileage, increased safety and reliability that may happen to infringe on a Ford patent or two (being a direct rip-off with improvements Ford refuses, for some reason, to include in their own product), why would I ever go to a dealership if I can get away with using the cheaper and better-in-every-measurable-way rip-off?
No, I *like* to pay for what I use. Hell, I've even donated to pirate sites and/or parties. But I can't bring myself to pay for something deliberately crippled when there exists a less crippled version already available that's superior in every measured way. That's not the moral choice, that's the stupid choice.
Learn to love Alaska
The problem is the only real resolution to the US debt with China is for the US to repudiate the debt. This would probably make China terminate all trade with the US.
Well and good, I say.
There is no way the US will ever pay this money back and with the current balance of trade with China, there is no way we can buy our way out. China is happy with this because they have to be thinking that the US is their colony. Except historically the US has made a really bad colony.
It is just a matter of time until someone decides to pull the plug on China. WalMart won't be happy. Neither will anyone that counts on Chinese manufacturing. But it would mean that the unemployment rate would probably drop to a more reasonable level and there would once again be manufacturing in the US. Because nobody else will do it for us cheap enough.
Use your work and the other several billion bucks worth of open source work you are allowed to use freely in some business that "makes money". Use it
I suggest for hints on "what business" start on page one of the yellow pages, A to Z, most business today uses software and computers. Just peruse around, see what interests you.
We produce food here on this farm, poultry and beef. We don't get paid for every skill set and work hour directly, there's no direct pay for picking up a tool and using it. We use these developed skills in an overall "business". OK, this week I am haying. Yesterday the magic smoke wafted out of my primary disk mower...grumble. Oh ya, had *two* flats on a tedder as well, one of which required me changing out a shredded tire, using tire irons and a lot of sweat. So, because I need to hay *now* and can't wait on parts and the time to fix the newer big mower, I had to dig out the older like thirty year old mower and make it work. It's satup and rusted out like a long time. This involved machining a driveshaft to fit, to make it suitable for purpose, among other things. Took some hours, but got a good piece cut today, I'll finish up tomorrow.
I don't get paid for tire changing, I don't get paid for machining and repairing directly, I don't submit an invoice for tractor jockeying..none of that do I get directly paid for. I *do* get paid for doing all these various things when product gets sold, and *if* there is a profit. This is "business", we use a ton of tools and skillsets that have to be developed in "business" and offer a real tangible product for sale. Other folks have service businesses that they do the same at. I can't just sit around and wait for flats to fix, and just that, or wait for something to break then dig out the wrenches, and charge just for that and insist that is all I am going to do. I can't just say to joe farm boss I am only going to operate a tractor, nothing else. I'd get bounced and wouldn't make any money, none.
Anyway, that's how you "make money" with tools and the developed skills to use them, you *use* the tools in some *other* real business. Having to custom make tools and parts, etc, think outside the box, come up with solutions and innovations, that haven't been done before, whatever, is quite common outside of the software "tool" business, that is how people keep going with their jobs that pay the rent, etc.
This stuff you expect to sell..your customers must use it, what do they do for a business, how do they use these tools to make money? Your solution might be just looking what they do to make cash. If they can make profit off of your work, you might be able to make double that profit if you did that sort of work yourself, with your custom designed software tools.