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US, China Working On Intellectual Property Rights

Posted by samzenpus on from the come-together dept.

itwbennett writes "US Attorney General Eric Holder is visiting Beijing this week to discuss how China and the US can better coordinate efforts to stop intellectual property rights violations. 'One of the things that has happened in recent years is that counterfeiting has become a globalized industry,' said Christian Murck, the president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China. To effectively shut down these operations, cross-country efforts at strengthening global enforcement like Holder's visit to China are crucial, he added. Coinciding with Holder's visit, China announced it will launch a new national campaign to crack down on intellectual property rights violations. The campaign will take aim at the production and distribution of pirated goods such as DVDs and software products. Violations relating to registered trademarks and patents will also be targeted. The campaign will last for half a year. The commercial value of pirated software in China, at $7.5 billion, is second only to that in the US, where it is $8.3 billion, according to the Business Software Alliance and IDC."

12 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. one sided? by shentino · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Coincidental timing after China's latest strangling of rare earths, yes?

    1. Re:one sided? by paeanblack · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Coincidental timing after China's latest strangling of rare earths, yes?

      It just means that China is now doing significant in-country R&D and authorship that they have a vested interest in protecting.

      Pre-1900, the US was the same way. We couldn't give two shits about the European IP we were constantly ripping, and it pissed off plenty of European countries. Once we really started developing stuff in-country, our IP laws suddenly grew teeth.

      History repeating itself itself.

    2. Re:one sided? by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Coincidental timing after China's latest strangling of rare earths, yes?

      It just means that China is now doing significant in-country R&D and authorship that they have a vested interest in protecting.

      Pre-1900, the US was the same way. We couldn't give two shits about the European IP we were constantly ripping, and it pissed off plenty of European countries. Once we really started developing stuff in-country, our IP laws suddenly grew teeth.

      History repeating itself itself.

      The history is accurate, but not quite a reflection of current events IMO (although it may someday get there).

      The counterfeiting is happening in China. If they were interested in stopping it, then they would do so. It's not like the counterfeiters are exactly hiding their production factories. This is China, knowing that the American politicians will never get tough on China, seeing as how they're financing most of our out-of-control national debt.

      It's why nothing has come of thirty years of "Middle East Peace Talks". All the talking in the world won't do you any good if both parties at the table aren't really sincere.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    3. Re:one sided? by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I hate to bother your "we did it first" narrative, but a pre-technical agrarian nation in the 19th century versus the aggressive non-scarcity-bound largescale tech stealing of a high-tech power like China is are not even in the same ballpark. Not even the same league.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  2. Priorities. by seeker_1us · · Score: 4, Insightful

    U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is visiting Beijing this week to discuss how China and the US can better coordinate efforts to stop intellectual property rights violations.

    As opposed discussing how to coordinate efforts to stop human rights violations.

    1. Re:Priorities. by mark72005 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Maybe Holder doesn't want to irritate the most power like-minded regime in the region? :)

    2. Re:Priorities. by dubbreak · · Score: 2, Insightful

      As opposed discussing how to coordinate efforts to stop human rights violations.

      Where's the money in that?

      --
      "If you are going through hell, keep going." - Winston Churchill
  3. Re:Business Software Alliance by sourcerror · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Bull Shit Alliance?

  4. Sure fire idea by Dahamma · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Just replace the FBI warning at the beginning with the message, "this movie brought to you by the Dalai Lama".

    Then sit back and watch the Chinese government crack down on pirated DVDs with a vengeance...

  5. Re:FP by commodore64_love · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Eh. I disagree.

    If China chose to crackdown on illegal DVD sellers, they could do it just as effectively as the US did it (DMCA makes it illegal), but with the additional punishment of serving hard time in the Chinese version of the Gulag.

    China simply doesn't want to. They are like the US in the 1800s, with very little protection for foreign authors.

    --
    "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  6. That's rich! by MacGyver2210 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't believe for a second any agreement China comes to agree upon would be honored. They haven't respected the intellectual property of ANY foreign country for decades, and I don't think a stern talking-to from the 'richest' and 'most powerful' country in the world is going to help.

    --
    If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
  7. Corporations - 2 : Human Beings - 0 by mykos · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Human rights take a back seat to copyrights.