Slashdot Mirror
China Pirates Austrian Village
First time accepted submitter thecoolstacks writes "Knockoff Apple Stores are one thing...but a knockoff Austrian village? That's some hardcore piracy right there, but we guess leave it China to do what it does best. From the article: 'After a year of construction and a price tag of $940 million dollars, the Chinese have successfully recreated the Austrian village of Hallstatt in its entirety over in the Southern Guangzhou Province. And let’s just say not every Austrian’s a fan of having their UNESCO heritage site ripped off. But since China is Austria’s second largest trading partner, what are you gonna do?'"
Seriously? Pirated? How about mimics, copies, or "builds replica of". I guess the next time I build a table for a friend based on another design I'll be a patch wearing, one-legged, parrot lover too. Ridiculous!!
Oh God... the ninjas... they're turning into pirates!
This has already been posted on the main page a good fortnight ago. The article is available here: http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/06/05/2332224/china-secretly-clones-austrian-village
For more infor http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/06/05/2332224/china-secretly-clones-austrian-village
Dupe.
http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/06/05/2332224/china-secretly-clones-austrian-village
To be fair, its more than a day or two. But only 2 weeks ago.
You can tell how powerful someone is by the magnitude of the crime they can commit and be able to get away with.
...going to be more difficult. The Chinese have two alternatives.
1. They can abduct thousands of people to populate their village or more likely
2. They're going to user their citizens as knock off Chinese imitations of Austrians. In which case, I am booking a flight to China to see this place immediately.
My kingdom for a donkey!
Seriously, how do articles like this get accepted in the first place?
China made a village in the exact style, placements, etc. of an Austrian village. Piracy? Piracy, hardcore, piracy is what China does best? What kind of baseless insult is that? Is this news, or some emotional butthurt editorial from an Austrian?
Does that mean that large parts of China Town ripped off China? Las Vegas ripped off France with its mini Eiffel Tower?
Get real. I can't even believe this is an article. Should not have even made it to Idle.
http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/06/05/2332224/china-secretly-clones-austrian-village
slashdot pirates their own content. jesus christ, lrn2search your own site.
China does what it can (artificial Yuan devaluation) to make sure we outsource to them. It only stands to reason they'ed want a slice of the tourism pie as well. Why go all the way to France when you can visit something just as good without leaving the country? Forget that the food is nothing alike and no one can quite manage that french accent, coming here keeps your own economy strong! (And probably some bs about better moral values.)
"China is Austria’s second largest trading partner".
Umm... I think you may have Austria and Australia confused. Austria is that tiny country in the middle of Europe known for the 'Sound of Music', the birth place of Hitler, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Josef Fritzl (serial incestual rapist), the alps ... but not so much for kangaroos.
GPLv2: I want my rights, I want my phone call! DRM: What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak?
"What are you gonna do?" ... nothing? It's not like the Austrian town isn't still there in its entirety.
How about
Somewhat related - There's a golf course near where I live that re-created portions of famous golf courses from around the world, and got sued by several of them for this. And it was fucking ridiculous.
Ref. http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl/1995_1309260/lawyers-make-final-arguments-in-tour-18-lawsuit.html
You can't copyright a city. The city is not being passed off as the "original". It is not piracy by any definition of the word. And if it were every country would be in trouble. There are 30 Eiffel Towers around the globe. The Statue of Liberty is no different. Even the Taj Mahal has been copied. Does this undermines the value of the original? I don't think so. If anything, someone who visited a copy might be more willing to travel to see what the original looks like. That said, I don't see the point of copying a whole city, but maybe that's just me.
No, Austria and Australia didn't get mixed up. You don't think China could be their second largest trading partner, right after, let's say, neighbor country Germany?
Sig?
Does anybody else read that as "nine hundred forty million dollars dollars"?
That's some hardcore piracy right there, but we guess leave it China to do what it does best.
That's some writing a small child would be ashamed of, but we leave it to Slashdot editors to fail at what they fail at best.
I swear, SlashDot is becoming tabloid. The lack of integrity, quality, and legitimacy is staggering.
Lazy Fucking Bastards!!
...why China won't ratify ACTA.
Nope. Unsurprisingly, the major trade partners are mostly their immediate neighbors and other EU member states. According to the statistical office of the austrian government, the most important trading partners are (export numbers in 2011):
1) Germany: 31.1%
2) Italy: 7.6%
3) United States: 5.2%
4) Switzerland: 4.9%
5) France: 4.1%
6) Czech Republic: 3.9%
7) Hungary: 3.1%
8) UK: 3%
9) Poland: 2.8%
10) Russian Federation: 2.4%
11) China: 2.4%
That's quite a bit distant from being the second most important trade partner, so I think it's very likely that someone confused the two countries:
What a dumb ass.
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
It's the /. editors who are pirates. And dupe posting buffoons:
http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/06/05/2332224/china-secretly-clones-austrian-village
You wouldn't steal a house, You wouldn't steal a city.
But you're free to build one exactly like it (more or less "copy it") and use it the way you like.
Last I've read in an Austrian media, the people from Hallstadt rather considered it as some kind of free promotion. Who of you would have known Hallstadt if it wasn't for the Chinese?
BTW, Austrias second largest trading partner after Germany is Italy, followed by Switherland and the Netherlands.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/au.html
A lot of "pirated" comments are going around here, but how was it decided that this village was pirated? Who did they check with in the village administration to verify that China didn't buy the rights to do so?
Next do the movie version of Rivendell! Heck, why not? A it'll snap up a billion dollars too.
Much like this story, then.
42 hidden comments
At 500+ years old, I'm fairly sure the 'village' is in the public domain
The REAL "pirates" here are thecoolstacks and samzenpus.
They've taken a story already posted by Hugh Pickens and Soulskill, and they've reposted it.
And Red Bull, the croissant, coffee names so weird it would make even starbucks blush and a generally twisted naming scheme for food (a popular sausage is called a "Eitrige" - the ulcerous). No kangaroos though.
According to Statistik Austria, China had an export share of 2.4% ranking eleventh. The top three would be Germany (31.1%), Italy (7.6%) and the United States 5.4%. They do import a lot from China (rank 4) but less than 5%.
So yes, someone probably mixed those two up or didn't check the facts.
Built by the same people who made the replica Taiwanese sites? Is this a subtle threat to intimidate the Austrians?
If only they did that using 3d additive printing performed by adruino/PV cells powered drones swarm that are controlled using crowd sourcing trough a cloud.
That'd be hardcore....
Austria is being paved over with highways, strip malls, excessive parking, soulless suburbs and soviet style housing projects at breakneck speed. Our decadent and postmodernist elites plunck down atrocities like these (Kunsthaus Graz) into the middle of our beautiful town centers.
The income from tourism provides the only political motivation for some restraint. Funny how tourists aren't interested in any places or buildings that were built during the last 60 years. But even this concern is considered parochial and therefore under constant attack from the (pseudo)intellectual class. To preserve what is beautiful is disparaged as "wishing to live in a museum". A redoubled effort to build even more brutalist and grotesque structures on the other hand is alleged to bring a more "sophisticated" set of tourists.
Great civilizations imitate and learn from the achievements of the past and others and build upon it. The modernism and postmodernism of the West on the other hand seeks to wipe the slate clean and start from scratch. The result is perpetual dilettantism.
The Chinese are on the right track. I wish they would copy more or even build an Austrian town here in Austria.
"let’s just say not every Austrian’s a fan of having their UNESCO heritage site ripped off."
Instead of having just one nice, vintage austrian village worthy of UNESCO recognition, the world now has two. I say this is an improvement.
So stuff your "it is pirated". There isn't even a copyright so far as I can tell, but even if there was, it would be on the local authority to hold it, and they authorized it.
In either case, bang goes the neighbourhood.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
'Piracy' in the land-lubber use of the word is usually used to describe a violation of the so called 'intelectual property' rights: trademarks, patents and copyright.
To my best knowlegde a village isn't patentable nor it there a trademark involved. Leaves copyright. Besides doubting that a village is suject to copyright - after all it is the work of many individual properties, the layout of that village is old enough that even the insanely long protection periods of today would have been expired.
So the Hallstadters should be flattered since immitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And make posters to be hanged in the clone: come see the original and experience the difference.
Quite amusing actually
The evil rotter, hang him from the highest mast, or a doorframe, whatever is closest. As long as he is hanged. The dirty pirate!
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
this is what happens when you don't fact-check before commenting on a fact-based comment.
http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/06/05/2332224/china-secretly-clones-austrian-village
gg, slashdot
The average age of slashdot editors is increasing, as evidenced by the number of repeat references to old stories.
Given all the sillyness surrounding copyright, piracu, patents, etc, extra doses of critique and irony are welcome.
The linked site seems to easily exceed its bandwidth and the article is also quite bad.
Here's a better one from Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/05/china-austria-idUSL3E8H42VJ20120605
For those who understand German or just want to see a short video of the Chinese copy of Hallstatt:
http://www.spiegel.de/video/china-baut-oesterreichischen-ort-hallstatt-nach-video-1200461.html
Hell yeah!
Fun fact: Almost no one in Austria has ever heard of "Sound of Music".
First, it's labeling them pirates for no reason. And further, the article was written by person who has no idea what it takes to create a whole village from scratch.
UNESCO should be thankfull that there's a backup in case the original gets wiped by an eathquake.
It's the zombie like duplicate people that will really creep you out!
Hallstatt's fault for not patenting itself!
How about "Slashdot Pirates Prior Slashdot Story"
Old news.
I looked on google maps http://goo.gl/maps/1eta based on comments about the actual city name. I wasn't able to see anything special. Does anyone else have a better fix on the location?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Probably thought it was roman numerals.
'Eitrige' is a vernacular term, the "official" (as in, what's it called on the wrapping) is "Käsekrainer" (Cheese-"krainer") which is quite straightforward, it's a krainer (type of sausage) with cheese in it. There actually was a discussion recently if it could keep the krainer-name, as some slovenians thought the name was - what else? - PIRATED!
Afaik it's mirrored and a lot of small details are intentionally made different, as well as accidental differences like typos.