Slashdot Mirror
Judge Rules Against China In 'Green Dam' Suit
An anonymous reader writes "About a year after Cybersitter sued the Chinese government and several Asian OEMs for allegedly copying its code to create the 'Green Dam' software, a US federal judge has allowed the $2.3 billion suit to proceed. Judge Josephine Staton Tucker, a California district judge, entered a judgement of default against the People's Republic of China on Wednesday, after PRC officials failed to respond to the ruling. Although the PRC's embassy sent a letter to the US State Department protesting Cybersitter's suit, such a letter did not qualify as a formal response."
It would be hilarious if we reneged on our foreign debts by using RIAA math to value the IP "stolen" from the US in the trillions, and seize foreign capital as "compensation."
This does happen in the case of tangible assets such as oil, so I guess the fact we don't do the same for intellectual property is a tacit admission of some distinction between them vs other types of property.
It won't be the PRC government that prevents them from getting money, it will be the USA government that stops them. The hostages held by Iran for 444 days tried to sue (there were substantial Iranian assets in the US that had been frozen and could be used to pay damages), but they lost their lawsuit not because of any defence put on by Iran but rather by the US government.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/01/national/main561274.shtml
If the USA government does that to protect a state which it considers an enemy (Iran), imagine what they will do to protect the PRC to which they owe a trillion dollars or so.
isn't there some law against suing foreign governments? At the very least, the judicial branch can't possibly imagine having the power to demand money from foreign nations.....can they?
The sound of 500 million marching soldiers becomes the sounds of 500 million men on a boat becomes the sound of 500 million men either vaporized, drowning or otherwise dying of radiation poisoning as the invasion fleet they were being shipped in is summarily nuked. Game over, thanks for playing. The Office of Health and Human Services along with the DEA would also like to remind you that only users lose drugs. We now return you to your regularly scheduled saber rattling and insanity from communist Asia.
"Inveniemus Viam Aut Faciemus" 'We will find a way... Or we will make one!' --Hannibal of Carthage
I don't know about that. China declared the software added and licensed to every new computer in the country, and their population is 1,331,460,000 according to The Google. So the suit is really a lot less than what China would pay if instead of copyrighted code, it was a pirated song.
Yeah, right, China doesn't get paid so it decides to commit suicide instead.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
The Chinese aren't buying US debt out of the goodness of the heart. They do this to keep the Yuan's value down. They want *that* to give Chinese exporters an edge. If the Chinese government dumps all their US T-bills, they will lose control of the Yuan. It's value will rise sharply and Chinese exports will fall almost as dramatically. And the much of the world's economy will also tank since we are all addicted to cheap Chinese manufactured goods. With their customers in deep crisis there will be even less demand of Chinese export goods which the Chinese economy will probably tank too.
It won't be the PRC government that prevents them from getting money, it will be the USA government that stops them. The hostages held by Iran for 444 days tried to sue (there were substantial Iranian assets in the US that had been frozen and could be used to pay damages), but they lost their lawsuit not because of any defence put on by Iran but rather by the US government.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/01/national/main561274.shtml
If the USA government does that to protect a state which it considers an enemy (Iran), imagine what they will do to protect the PRC to which they owe a trillion dollars or so.
Those hostages are alive and free today because of an agreement known as the Algiers Accords (wikipedia). Part of the aggreement that freed them stated that they could not sue Iran. If we reneged after making the accord we would forever lose the option to recover hostages through such an aggreement. This type of action is down to protect US interests and its citizens abroad.
Yeah, that's gonna work. If China doesn't honor US patents, the US can sue them. If the US doesn't honor Chinese patents, the Chinese will... oh I dunno... cut off exports to the US?
Except, really, who else is going to buy their exports? Most of the country is dedicated to supplying stores like Wal-mart, or for their own consumption. Think how much money firms like Apple bring in to China? And all those other tech companies that buy components made in China? They might not all be US owned, but a lot of their products are sold in the US. If China stops exporting to the US, we can revive our industrial capability. It will be hard and expensive, but beneficial in the long run. But then who's going to buy all those Chinese-made goods? China can't sustain its own growth and production internally. We might be tied to them, but they are as equally tied to us.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
The full title of this software is actually GREEN DAM YOUTH ESCORT.
For guarding of the youth, to making safe and happy social harmony. Great and capable software for glorious ten thousand year nation. Code is not stolen; developed by brilliant engineers at November 23 People's Collective Software Refinery.
They are about as valid as every peace treaty signed since the beginning of mankind.
Almost all of the US Treasury debt owned by China (and in general) is in the form of book-entry securities. This means there is no physical document for the treasury bill, note or bond. It exists as an entry in the database of a broker or the US Treasury. The court could simply order ownership of an appropriate value of those securities to be transferred from the Chinese government to the successful plaintiff.
It ends when the US wins because it owes trillions of dollars to China..
To paraphrase Donald Trump: "When you owe someone a billion dollars, they have power over you. When you owe someone a trillion dollars, you have power over them!"
Yup, it would be akin to killing the goose that laid the golden egg. But the real worry is that in 20 years or so, they'll learn alchemy and be able to print their own gold without the goose. At that point, they could kill it and only get a little sting in the bottom line. But don't worry, we are helping them get to that point as fast as we can. It looks to me like a train wreck in slow motion. I know what's going to happen. But there's nothing I can do to stop it, and I can't look away. Every empire falls, and the US has leaped off the cliff, but in Wiley E. Coyote fashion, is still running without looking down. The actual fall hasn't happened, but I believe there's nothing that can be done now to prevent it.
And why do I get the feeling that I need to get BadAnalogyGuy to post this for me?
Learn to love Alaska
Except, really, who else is going to buy their exports?
The US buys 25% or so of Chinese exports, and that number is falling. So who else will buy their exports? The rest of the world.
Most of the country is dedicated to supplying stores like Wal-mart, or for their own consumption.
Just because the US couldn't survive without China doesn't mean China couldn't survive without the US.
If China stops exporting to the US, we can revive our industrial capability. It will be hard and expensive, but beneficial in the long run.
When we had the money, we chose to shut down our industries. When we are broke, we will not be able to revive them. The expensive part will prevent it from happening, as when we stop trade with China, the US dollar will drop like a rock and won't be able to buy anything internationally.
China can't sustain its own growth and production internally. We might be tied to them, but they are as equally tied to us.
The only reason they are tied to us now is because they are artificially depressing their currency and propping up the US currency in order to make the US an easy market and keep their products cheap. When the relationship ends, the Yuan will jump internationally and the Dollar will drop. That will hurt them and us, but not equally. The US will enter a period of massive inflation and mass exodus by international corporations to more stable places like Australia and Western Europe and China will just have to reduce production by 25% and spend that extra idle time working on quality and environmental improvements. Tied, yes. "Equally"? Not even close.
Oh, and give it another 20 years and the US will be just as dependent on China as they are now, and China will be much less tied to the US, further widening the "equal" gap you assert.
Learn to love Alaska
Huh. I suppose, if we game the auction correctly, we can deprive China of far more than 2.3B.
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
Grow up and stop pretending that the general term "American" isn't used globally and in common parlance to refer to activities of, and bodies within, the United States of America. My statement stands true as written.
The US has not been honoring ANY of their treaties. They have their money fixed to the RMB. They have trade barriers in place (especially agricultural ones, which disadvantage poor farmers in poor countries). They subsidize and dump on the market. They refuse to let Mickey Mouse onto the public domain, long after he should have been freed. They invade oil producing countries all over. They make software like Bittorent, Limewire, TOR, and Linux which are all just tools for piracy. Per their own legislation, they are required to have low emission cars. W SHOULD have taken care fo this last decade, but did not. So, now, China decides to borrow just a little bit of source code, and you think that they are to blame?
PS, I think that the alleged code theft was done by a contractor producing the code. Kind of a Blackwater or HBGary kind of thing. /troll