China World's Largest Source of Counterfeit and Pirated Products

[Aptrgangr]

China World's Largest Source of Counterfeit and Pirated Products

Trade experts say China is the largest source of counterfeit and pirated products in the world--and the problem is growing.

The Motion Picture Association of America estimates about 95 percent of all DVDs sold in China are pirated, costing the industry $280 million last year. The industry group representing the major Hollywood studios says it has warned Beijing of an increasingly restless US Congress and possible trade consequences if China does not do more to fight piracy.

Pirated DVDs often appear on the streets just days after a movie's theatrical release, with disks costing around $1 each.

The problem of intellectual property theft goes well beyond pirated DVDs. The list of products being counterfeited in China ranges from clothing to golf clubs to toilets to motorcycles. Electronics components may be the hardest knock-offs to identify because of their small size.

The Office of the Unite States Trade Representative says Beijing is failing to uphold its WTO obligations to combat the piracy of intellectual property, costing the US economy billions of dollars every year.

Acting Assistant US Trade Representative Victoria Espinel says the agency is "frustrated" with China's approach to intellectual property theft, nearly four years after the country joined the World Trade Organization.

She says Chinese authorities are not enforcing intellectual property laws, and have done little to crack down on counterfeiters. So, she says the US trade office is examining all of its options including international litigation.

"We are committed to ensuring that China is compliant with its obligations, and we will take WTO action if we determine this is the most effective way to fix the problem that we are resolved to fix," she recently told a reporter.

A WTO case against China could result in tariff sanctions.

Trade experts testifying before the Congressional panel added that American companies who buy cheaper Chinese products, often made with counterfeit parts, are fueling the problem.

China Confidential

[bombadillo]

Everywhere in the Third World one will find pirated and counterfeit products. My own feelings are ambivalent. The intellectual property laws in the West are written so as to privilege Western multinationals -- who as often as not stole the science, tradition, or process themselves (but not a murmur about that). In many cases life-saving drugs are not made available because the pharma company has priced it beyond affordability. Western textbooks -- particularly American ones -- are often on the market for well over $100, and though some are available in cheap authorised reprints, many more are not. It's clear that the USA at least is depending increasingly on the export of intellectual and cultural goods to sustain itself, and it's also clear that much of the Third World is unable or unwilling to pay the hefty prices that comes with these goods. The obvious problem with this piracy and counterfeiting is that it discourages innovation and the development of new products -- why bother doing so when one will receive scant royalties, and when the cost of investing in innovation cannot be recouped by a price premium on the product?

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by bombadillo

The obvious problem with this piracy and counterfeiting is that it discourages innovation and the development of new products -- why bother doing so when one will receive scant royalties, and when the cost of investing in innovation cannot be recouped by a price premium on the product?

No. It is not the only problem. It affects small and medium business and industry.

This past winter a friend of my brother who ran a business of cheap clothes retail selling was forced to close down because he could not compete with the Chinese. He even had to mortgage his house to pay the people who worked there. Not the only one in the textile and shoe sector. Many others have closed down too.

First it was the price competition with items manufactured in China, India or Mexico, which were produced with much lower labour costs (near slavery wages). Even with the added transport costs, manufacturers were forced to either lower wages (which with EU costs of life it would mean to starve workers), or to move the production chain to those countries (delocalisation with the subsequent loss of work places).

But now immigration has made worse what was already bad enough. I recall that I told this story on some other post here.

He used to go for lunch to his mother's, and always took with him a few items to show her, since it had been a family business and the mother knew the trade too. He noticed a Chinese who observed him. One day, the Chinese approached him and told him that he could have a manufactured copy of the items that he had, at a better price. The Chinese, who drove a brand new top of the range BMW car with all extras, took him to a basement where he was shocked by what he saw: all Chinese people sitting in front of sawing machines with their bare feet. "The only thing missing in the picture were the chains around their ankles", he told me.

Nearly a year later of years fighting hard to keep up the business since his father died, a warm winter did the rest and he went into bankruptcy, with his house mortgaged to pay the workers and the consequent jobs losses.

[bombadillo]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

The Chinese, who drove a brand new top of the range BMW car with all extras, took him to a basement where he was shocked by what he saw: all Chinese people sitting in front of sewing machines with their bare feet. "The only thing missing in the picture were the chains around their ankles", he told me.

Nearly a year later of years fighting hard to keep up the business since his father died, a warm winter did the rest and he went into bankruptcy, with his house mortgaged to pay the workers and the consequent jobs losses.

I agree. Europe for the Europeans. Unfettered global trade will be the death of us (except for some finance capitalists at the top). Socialism and nationalism (foreigners out) can work together.

[Weltschmerz]

Originally Posted by bombadillo

I agree. Europe for the Europeans. Unfettered global trade will be the death of us (except for some finance capitalists at the top). Socialism and nationalism (foreigners out) can work together.

I don't know if you've had too little of it to see the true face of socialism. I've seen it all my life. Some kind of conceived-a-new socialism entirely apart from socialism as-it-is perhaps, but I'd rather let the whole concept choke. Practically all of those involved in it are corrupt, they have their 'reasons' to be what they are in terms of personal benefits, not for a better world, let alone any nation. They are a mafia, offering their protection to liars, cheaters and other indecencies, in exchange for support. There is no idea behind it, it's just business.

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Seekers

I don't know if you've had too little of it to see the true face of socialism. I've seen it all my life. Some kind of conceived-a-new socialism entirely apart from socialism as-it-is perhaps, but I'd rather let the whole concept choke. Practically all of those involved in it are corrupt, they have their 'reasons' to be what they are in terms of personal benefits, not for a better world, let alone any nation. They are a mafia, offering their protection to liars, cheaters and other indecencies, in exchange for support. There is no idea behind it, it's just business.

I have to agree here. I would banish completely the word "socialist" from the political vocabulary.

[Errigal]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

I have to agree here. I would banish completely the word "socialist" from the political vocabulary.

Yes, especially when the word "socialist" is immediately before or after the word "national".

I myself think the co-operative and national syndicalist traditions would be the best to build upon.

[bombadillo]

Originally Posted by Seekers

I don't know if you've had too little of it to see the true face of socialism. I've seen it all my life. Some kind of conceived-a-new socialism entirely apart from socialism as-it-is perhaps, but I'd rather let the whole concept choke.

Try unfettered global capitalism coupled (as it always is) to relentless militarism instead and you will look back with nostalgia to the relatively mild corruptions and inefficiencies of socialism (as I do). No system is or can be perfect, given human nature. Try to choose the lesser of two evils.

[Weltschmerz]

Originally Posted by bombadillo

Try unfettered global capitalism coupled (as it always is) to relentless militarism instead and you will look back with nostalgia to the relatively mild corruptions and inefficiencies of socialism (as I do). No system is or can be perfect, given human nature. Try to choose the lesser of two evils.

Why even make a choice between the bad things? The corruptions and inefficiencies are not 'mild', socialism is all corrupt and inefficient. And it kills all creativity. It enslaves mankind.

[Gladstone]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

He used to go for lunch to his mother's, and always took with him a few items to show her, since it had been a family business and the mother knew the trade too. He noticed a Chinese who observed him. One day, the Chinese approached him and told him that he could have a manufactured copy of the items that he had, at a better price. The Chinese, who drove a brand new top of the range BMW car with all extras, took him to a basement where he was shocked by what he saw: all Chinese people sitting in front of sawing machines with their bare feet. "The only thing missing in the picture were the chains around their ankles", he told me.

An example of the true face of multi-culturalism.

A bit of an aside, and also something that happens to relate to China, I heard a Chinese Communist Party representative interviewed on the radio the other night and she stated the party now allowed 'capitalists' (her term) to be party members and that this was 'a major break-through'. As has been observed by some for many years, the Reds and Capitalists are simply two sides of the same coin...the former with an artificial collectivism, the latter with an artificial individualism, both anti people, and both defining as 'hate' the expression of the identitys of the various peoples of the world.

Like two long separated siblings who have found each other once again, the 'convergance' of the Capitalists and Red ideologies to form multi-culturalism is entirely natural.

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

Originally Posted by Seekers

I don't know if you've had too little of it to see the true face of socialism. I've seen it all my life. Some kind of conceived-a-new socialism entirely apart from socialism as-it-is perhaps, but I'd rather let the whole concept choke. Practically all of those involved in it are corrupt, they have their 'reasons' to be what they are in terms of personal benefits, not for a better world, let alone any nation. They are a mafia, offering their protection to liars, cheaters and other indecencies, in exchange for support. There is no idea behind it, it's just business.

The Socialism you are talking about is totally anti-nationalist, maybe that is the problem.

[Weltschmerz]

Originally Posted by Plethon

The Socialism you are talking about is totally anti-nationalist, maybe that is the problem.

Is there a nationalist socialist movement in England that you would care for? I just have never heard of any socialism that I would like to have.

[bombadillo]

Originally Posted by Seekers

Why even make a choice between the bad things? The corruptions and inefficiencies are not 'mild', socialism is all corrupt and inefficient. And it kills all creativity. It enslaves mankind.

Fair enough -- opinions vary. What, then, do you propose?

[Weltschmerz]

Originally Posted by bombadillo

Fair enough -- opinions vary. What, then, do you propose?

If China does not respect us, then we should employ measures against them. Like not trading with them, not allowing them to work in our countries, not allowing them to study at our universities and so on.