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China Defends Its IP Practices, Says 'We Paid Up'
hackingbear writes "Countering accusations that China's high-speed rail technologies are knockoffs, the head of China's Intellectual Property Administration in a conference said (paraphrasing): "We bought technologies from German, Japan, France, and Canada. We paid up. It is perfectly legal. We then innovate on top of them like most other inventions in the world. Why is that pirating?' (Link is to a Google translation; here is the original.) He cited China's ability, the world's first, to build high-speed rail in a high mountain area as an example of additional innovation."
I don't know why we are relying on a Google translated article when Xinhua News Agency (state run) offers their own English translations (second copy) of this exact news release. And they're much more readable. Such news sites often offer me periodic enjoyment.
Patent and innovation discourse aside, it should be noted there's an interesting piece comparing the locality of populations in the US vs China. Let's face it, China (and the Southeast Asia region this connects them with) have a higher population density and a greater need for this high speed lengthy rail. It's also going to bring much needed economic development via freight shipments to very poor areas that the United States probably wouldn't experience on a corresponding scale.
Oh, also, there's some pretty entertaining rail-envy springing up.
And before you call it outright theft, consider the history of the "technology transfer" program that seeded all this. It sounds like there's going to be lengthy lawsuits lasting a decade or more and that the companies have reason to sue -- good reason. I wonder how this is going to affect future "technology transfer" programs to China. Also, one last bit of praise: NPR's radio coverage of this has been top notch.
My work here is dung.
From TFS: "He cited China's ability, the world's first, to build high-speed tail in high mountain area as an example of additional innovation."
Where can I find some of this high-speed tail? Or, are Chinese girls in the mountains just desperate?
Similar to the upcoming US election results
When the deal regarding the Transrapid was announced in Germany most people didn't take notice that the deal involved China wanting to eventually build the trains themselves which of course means licensing the technology and transferring a lot of know-how. So people who now accuse China of stealing obviously didn't pay attention back then because at least to me and a few of my friends it was immediately obvious that eventually we would get cut out of the picture. So what, we've got the Transrapid for over 20 years now and all we have in Germany is a test course. In Shanghai, at least it's really transporting people even if in the long run it won't be our technology any more. Better than not making use of it at all.
you own the means of production in a limited and short term fashion. pretty soon, your claim and your basis for ownership evaporate
if you own the factory, you actually own the means of production, and therefore you actually are in power
the usa has moved all of its production to china, retaining the intellectual property "keys". these keys will rapidly become useless and unenforceable, and all the purple faced tirades about piracy will be met with a shrug. and the usa will find itself locked out of those factories, and without power
the pursuit of profit has resulted in a very short sighted situation where all the means of production are being moved to an autocracy that does not share our values. it will take a number of years, but this will not end well. and it is all because the captains of industry want fractionally higher stock market returns, and joe six pack wants more cheap plastic crap at walmart. for these empty goals, the common man and the man in power in the usa are selling their country's soul
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
In my experience with Chinese "innovation", they take a product that is well known to the more developed areas of the world and create a shitty copy and sell them as the original. They get a higher profit margain because consumers believe the goods to be the real thing while the original manufacturer gets screwed over because the junk products are being sold on the market with their company name attached to it.
That is the Chinese innovation that I know.
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
I'm sure China has done just as much innovation on those rails as the Soviets did with the Tu-4 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-4)
We could also cite how USA and Russia innovated rocket technology, thanks to the Germans. I am not saying this is any better or worse, what I am saying is that if you comb through history then you will probably see many more cases of technology ending up in other countries without some sort of 'due' being paid. While it is only fair to compensate the original inventor or innovator, there are limits to doing so.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
I knew a fellow that was an engineer working for Siemens in China on HSR and he had some wonderful stories about how their computers grew legs while working in China.
Apparently, from what I remember, the Siemens folks would return to work in the morning and all of the computer cables (monitor, keyboard, power, etc...) would be disconnected from the machines. Sometimes the computers would just pile into a group inside the office. They changed the locks to the office, locked down cpus, etc... but without fail the machines just moved on their own. Unable to get any useful response from their Chinese contacts they set up a camera and found it was the folks they were working on the project with who were taking the computers. When confronted with the evidence, the response was a merely 'Not Us!' And business continued as if none of this was happening.
The Chinese built the American rail system, it's only fitting they now build their own. I for one applaud them.
he means where you brought over those german nazis, who have presided over factories in which slave labor was employed to the point of death, gave them jobs, citizenship, and a chance to ........ well not exactly continue the practice of slave labor, of course.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun#Slave_labor
just like how you have employed ex gestapo as an anti-eastern bloc spy net during cold war, leading to the impeccable shit cia and similar organizations perpetrated, thanks to their influence in their ranks.
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you have lived off of others' souls, while maintaining that american dream of yours, thanks to the colonial empire you built over blood.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/US_ThirdWorld/dictators.html
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