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China's Official Newspaper Pans iPad — Too Locked Down
An anonymous reader writes "The People's Daily newspaper, which is the official news organ of the ruling Communist party in China, apparently recently posted a review of the iPad, where it complained about the locked down nature of the device, noting that 'There are many disadvantages. For example you cannot install pirate software on them, you cannot download [free] music, and you need to pay for movies you watch on them.' You would think a country that is in favor of locking down the internet so much would like a locked up device ..."
The company I work for doesn't have any trouble getting money from Chinese companies for our software product. The reason is that we offer service along with the software. Maybe your statement is true with respect to some part of the Chinese government--I don't know. But it's pretty clear that at least with respect to the companies we're dealing with, what's going on here is a difference in culture, not some concerted attempt to harm American businesses.
From my perspective as a software developer, it seems to me that what's harming American businesses is copyright and patent maximalism, not some effort on China's part to harm us. I'm much more personally worried about American patent trolls than I am about Chinese software pirates. Indeed, I'm not at all worried about Chinese software pirates.