Think IP rights in China are improving? Think again!
Direct quote from a Chinese English Professor in Shenzhen to a student writing a graduation thesis:
"Just go on line and find something. I know it's hard to write your own paper, sometimes it's hard for me too. I don't care. Just copy something so you can graduate."
If university students are being told by professors at government run schools to actively seek out opportunities to plagiarism it's safe to assume that the rest of "lesser" educated China hasve even less reservations! Not only is it scary that university professors, whose business it is to create and teach intellectual property, don't care about (their own!) IP, but an entire generation is being taught that IP rights are just not important.
Of course, this isn't new. But the Chinese government was supposed to have stopped this, right? Didn't the government make defending IP a national priority? Didn't the government "destroy all illegal CDs and operations in China" already? (Actually, every year since 1995 this has been a headline in local papers at one time or another)
The reality in China is that IP is not a national priority. In fact, IP theft is! The Chinese government, with their background in communist theory, believes that taking advantage of capitalism and it's resultant products is not only fair game but part of the destiny of China and it's ascending to the pinnacle of both world power and socialist utopia. China can catch and pass the West by, in part, copying IP and domesticating it, repackaging it, reselling it, etc. The short term financial gains made by not doing any of one's own R&D are obvious--billions of dollars that can be spent else where.
China's public excuse to the US and other international bodies is that "China is too big" and variations on this uncontrollable-China theme (too many people to police, too much industry to patrol, too much territory to effectively cover). Yet, there are NO knock offs of the 2008 Olympic dolls, logos, pins or other memoribilia to be found in the Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong or Shenzhen markets. The Chinese government has found that protecting their own personal IP rights are not only important but manageable!
If university students are being told by professors at government run schools to actively seek out opportunities to plagiarism it's safe to assume that the rest of "lesser" educated China hasve even less reservations! Not only is it scary that university professors, whose business it is to create and teach intellectual property, don't care about (their own!) IP, but an entire generation is being taught that IP rights are just not important.
Of course, this isn't new. But the Chinese government was supposed to have stopped this, right? Didn't the government make defending IP a national priority? Didn't the government "destroy all illegal CDs and operations in China" already? (Actually, every year since 1995 this has been a headline in local papers at one time or another)
The reality in China is that IP is not a national priority. In fact, IP theft is! The Chinese government, with their background in communist theory, believes that taking advantage of capitalism and it's resultant products is not only fair game but part of the destiny of China and it's ascending to the pinnacle of both world power and socialist utopia. China can catch and pass the West by, in part, copying IP and domesticating it, repackaging it, reselling it, etc. The short term financial gains made by not doing any of one's own R&D are obvious--billions of dollars that can be spent else where.
China's public excuse to the US and other international bodies is that "China is too big" and variations on this uncontrollable-China theme (too many people to police, too much industry to patrol, too much territory to effectively cover). Yet, there are NO knock offs of the 2008 Olympic dolls, logos, pins or other memoribilia to be found in the Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong or Shenzhen markets. The Chinese government has found that protecting their own personal IP rights are not only important but manageable!
posted by dvdd8n @ 7:55 AM
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