By Benjamin Ross

China and the US have been in the news again, and this time it’s about intellectual property rights. The US is accusing China of not taking intellectual property laws seriously. China has responded by giving the US the proverbial middle finger. Here’s my take.

From the American Perspective
Piracy of software, movies, and music in China is not just rampant, it is the default. I do not know a single store in Fuzhou where I could buy a legitimate copy of a movie, (or Windows Vista for that matter). While many businesses are succumbing to the pressure to use legitimate software, this is far from the case for private consumers. And as far as movies, buying a legitimate DVD in China is a ritual reserved for collectors or those who want to show off their wealth.

Clearly, more could be done. There is an entire floor of a mall here in Fuzhou which is dedicated to selling pirated software and movies. The discs are purchased wholesale by weight and then sold for slightly under a dollar a piece. Whether it’s Lionel Richie’s Greatest Hits, Adobe Photoshop CS2, or the Borat Movie, everything can be purchased for the price 2 liter bottle of Pepsi. This isn’t exactly an environment that you could say is making it difficult to distribute contraband.

From the Chinese Perspective
It’s not as easy as it sounds. China is a country of 1.3 billion people with a large governmental web spreading out from Beijing to every little nook and cranny across the Chinese empire. Enforcing regulations in big cities can be relatively efficient, but passing these laws down to small locals (where contraband is often produced), is not as simple as it is in the US, or any other country in the world for that matter.

US companies aren’t really losing that much money. This is just conjecture here, but say piracy was suddenly eliminated in China. It is difficult to imagine droves of Chinese rushing out to buy legitimate DVD’s and software. Many workers in China still make less than a dollar a day, and it would be a stretch to expect them to spend an entire days’ wages on a movie. This is even more so the case for software. People making $150 a month, would simply not buy a $300 copy of Photoshop. They would either not use it, or more likely, find other ways to obtain the intellectual property (i.e. downloading, or burning copies of the original).

It will be interesting to see what the next few moves will bring about. This is not the first time the US has pressured China on Intellectual Property Rights. China has responded (at least according to what I have read in Chinese media) by busting several piracy rings, and increasing the penalties for offenders. A friend of mine here in Fuzhou even witnessed a small store get busted for selling pirated discs. Nonetheless, it still seems finding pirated movies and software is no more difficult than it was three years ago, and finding the real stuff is still virtually impossible.

Benjamin Ross, Ben’s Blog