UK agrees copyright cooperation with China The UK and Chinese governments have agreed to coordinate policies and development of copyright law. The governments have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) pledging closer working on the issue. The document was signed on behalf of the UK's Intellectual Property Office by Baroness Wilcox, a minister at the Department …
I don't think the 1300 million or so chinese will suddenly become extra-specially respecting of uk copyright. At most they'll think the uk is extra special in the american sense. I'm not at all sure what the good baroness thinks she's gaining here, except for a nice feather for her parliament hat. Best keep a close eye on the gains vs the effort extended on their behalf.
This is madness!!! The Chinese are the copyright theives of the world! It will all be one sided and only China will gain from this.
They will steal everything and give nothing! Once they have what they want, they'll hide behind their 'great firewall of China' and Baroness Wilcox will have nothing but egg (fried rice) on her face!
Note the MoU has a term of 5 years (or roughly one Parliamentary term in BBC News-esque units).
So I think she'll be more likely to have a nice fat pension pot and thousands of quid in resettlement grant in her pocket to help wipe off any egg that may actually hit her.
I'd be prepared to suspend my incredulity if I thought the MoU would be torn up and ceremonially burned at the first time the Chinese don't bother adhering to their side of the bargain. Don't see it some how. More like some delegation of Civil Servants jetting off first class to the WTO for several months on full expenses to make their futile case.
Half of China's economy is based on counterfeit goods and they know it.
Entire villages in the provinces are dedicated to duplicating individual components for everything from trainers to strip lighting. And do we really care about firms like Burberry, who exported their operations to China by shutting down their Welsh factory and then found that their blueprints had been used to set up shadow counterfeiting operations?
Of course it gets a bit worrying when the goods are electrical or medical, like all those exploding phone batteries we hear about or the fake medecines and contraceptives shipped into east Africa. But make no mistake, the Chinese don't give a fuck! That's not being racist, it's just the way things work there.
Ever heard of the mass destruction of CD' and DVD's in China? Did they stop copy shops?
Understand, the BeiJing government sets policy and the rest of China promptly ignores it, especially in the semi-autonomous regions.
If you REALLY want to stop product copying don't ship the manufacturing technology over there - keep the smarts and the jobs at home.
I know many Chinese factories that make stuff for the West who run 'Third Shifts' which is when the copy stuff is made.
is a one-way street, might want to contribute a few pence to the Chinese every time you wipe yourselves. Paper, both to write upon and as a hygienic product, is a Chinese invention. You might also want to consider adding a couple of pence when drinking your tea, hunting your foxes, or using your compasses....
Henri
everytime our "brave troops" fires a weapon or uses gunpowder. That will earn the Chinese 100x as much as we lose in piracy.
And btw, China has never had a stranglehold on software copies since the internet and torrenting took off... the people who buy fakes and copies in China never will have had the money to buy the real deal anyway... much like the record industry here keeps bitching on about lost revenue when no-one was going to buy their rubbish track.
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