Report: China IP theft now equal in value to US exports to Asia China is responsible up to 80 per cent of US intellectual property theft, which a government report has estimated accounts for $300bn in lost exports, roughly the equivalent of the current American trade balance with Asia. "Unless current trends are reversed, there is a risk of stifling innovation, with adverse consequences …
All the tech on my desk, down to the cat5 cable has a "Made in China" sticker on it.
They already know how to make the real thing for US companies. Their fakes are the real thing without the designer label. Greedy global electronics companies gave away the knowledge when the jobs went to cheaper labour.
That is higher than most other countries' GDP. It will be difficult to convince China, that this is not a good strategy. On the other hand - if they plan to go any (objective) third party council, their numbers should better be waterproof. If they are calculated in the same manner than RIAA's, it might rather cause amusement in the middle kingdom.
"If counterattacks against hackers were legal, there are many techniques that companies could employ that would cause severe damage to the capability of those conducting IP theft."
If the efforts of private actors go as well ((badly)) as those of government actors, this would degenerate into a free-fire zone where no one can tell who or what actually got attacked by the "return fire".
Would you really trust a BAE or GE to know a joe job misdirection from a real attacking source? Do you really want to give a government entity (say China) proof that they were attacked by a (bamboozled) <insert Western pigfarm here>, thereby giving them the further justification to continue their own righting of centuries of injustice.
Show me the instances where enough evidence of attack origination was isolated to take to an international court and win a ruling. Until you've got evidence the level of "here are the pictures of the missiles in Cuba" you aren't going to win, and you'll attack the wrong enemies. (Sorry about the slipup Telenor, no hard feelings, right?)
Some things that appear to be missing in that report are these:
(1) WTF are these multi-million dollar companies doing about computer security? If this "IP theft" really is so important why don't they have proper (ideally physical) separation of external (internet) and internal (valuable) networks? Too much cost/trouble?
(2) Most of the vulnerabilities being exploited are either people or, equally relevant, down to MS & Adobe in the majority of cases. Why is the US gov not penalising them for such a "IP rape" of the nation?
(3) Last time I looked, IP was covered by patents and trademarks which can be enforced against those who copy it (even if stupidly, e.g. Apple vs Samsung). Are we to really to believe such a huge value of IP is not protected by these established means?
(4) Considering most US corporations have out-sourced to China already (and the Chinese are smart enough to make most "joint ventures"), and they do so to save money so staff move a lot, is that not also a real risk for your IP? If so, why are they now complaining about the bloody obvious?
"(4) Considering most US corporations have out-sourced to China already (and the Chinese are smart enough to make most "joint ventures"), and they do so to save money so staff move a lot, is that not also a real risk for your IP? If so, why are they now complaining about the bloody obvious?"
It's because while they quite like the cake they are currently eating, there was this cake they used to have, which also looked nice, and they'd like to have it again.
"Currently, Internet attacks against hackers for purposes of self-defense are as illegal under U.S. law as the attacks by hackers themselves," the report states. "If counterattacks against hackers were legal, there are many techniques that companies could employ that would cause severe damage to the capability of those conducting IP theft."
So... if a thief break into your house and steal something, it should be legal to break into the thief's house and take it back?
As an extreme example : If someone kills a relative of your, it should be legal to kill the murderer yourself?
Yeah, it should work...
I also wonder about what they're implying with this "retrieve stolen information."... Does it means the information is 'lost' by the original owner, and they need to get it back, or - more probably - that they should retrieve the exclusivity to this information by destroying the stolen version in the hacker's network... Isn't it "destruction of proof"?
"Finally, offending companies must be penalized in cases of proven theft, to reduce the financial incentive for crime. This could involve a tariff on Chinese imports amounting to 150 per cent of the estimated value of IP theft and/or the withholding of an equivalent amount from the World Health Organization budget."
What? What did dying African children do to deserve the WHO budget cut? This is just some attitude that there is "America" and "others". Others have taken money from us! Right, let's cut the budget for others by the same amount. Besides, the US only contributes $110m/year, so won't really make up for things.
Oh fuck off with all this anti-American nonsense. You do know it's pretty much impossible for western companies to operate in China without contracting the work out or JVs? The Chinese political and business class use their own people for slave labour, the US merely hires them out, same as everyone else.
If anyone in China is to blame for their 'slave labour conditions' it's their own Government, who purposely keep migrant workers in that position, so global manufacturing is kept centred around China.
But yeah, keep blaming the US if it makes you feel superior.
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