[A2k] "China takes steps to protect intellectual property"

[Manon Ress]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
things are looking up?
Manon

See:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060530-6944.html


5/30/2006 4:51:23 PM, by Peter Pollack
QUOTE:
It is certainly encouraging to see the Chinese government beginning
to take the intellectual property issue seriously, but there are a
number of issues that probably need to be addressed before we see any
long-term effects.

First, legislation is good, but history shows that culture is not an
easy thing to change with legislation. Much of China's culture of
piracy is due to the fact the people of that country are relatively
poor. With 49 percent of China's labor force devoted to agriculture
and an unemployment rate that has been estimated at up to 20 percent,
convincing an average person there to pay US$80 or more for a copy of
Windows is a upward climb at best. Similarly, movies, music, and
books are likely to simply be ignored if they cannot be found on the
Internet.

Second, preventing piracy=97even in the US or Europe=97is not an easy
task. Fining people money they don't have isn't likely to be much of
a deterrent for the average user.

Finally, as far as computers are concerned, software such as Red Flag
Linux probably stands to be the big winner if laws to install only
licensed operating systems really take hold. There are a limited
number of reasons why a consumer would need to spend the extra money
for a copy of Windows, and most of those have to do with
compatibility. For the average user as well as many government
agencies, a Linux distribution stands to handles all of their needs
while remaining cheap and legal.

If nothing else, it's good that the Chinese government looks to be
taking intellectual property seriously. While the issues remain
complex and won't be solved overnight, the "thousand mile journey"
appears to have begun.
END OF QUOTE

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Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

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