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I seriously thought that it had simply been torn down and replaced with a bank in the mean time – hey, it’s China. That could happen. It used to be "Only in Am

I seriously thought that it had simply been torn down and replaced with a bank in the mean time – hey, it’s China. That could happen. It used to be "Only in America" that the world muttered in disbelief. This century, I'm thinking "Hey, it’s China. That could happen" might just be the new black, as it were.

stcredzero 15y ago
Were we Americans this crass and exploitive in the late 1800's? Not rhetorical, but a genuine question. I've heard the opinion expressed that we indeed were.
- gamble 15y ago
  America used to be notorious in the 18th and 19th centuries for ignoring copyrights and patents filed in Europe. For example: "Johns describes how the first generation of American publishers came to constitute themselves as book pirates who openly violated British copyright law by systematically reprinting works that the British publishers considered their own lawful property. This laid the foundations for a vital but highly controversial book market in the new world and Johns concludes that by “the 1820s, Jacksonian America had a secure and vibrant public sphere – but to European eyes an utterly piratical one”. Source: http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/mit7/papers/Fredriksson-Draft-MiT.pdf http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/mit7/papers/Fredriksson-Draft-...
  - cookiecaper 15y ago
    Evidence that our current intellectual property regime is simply not practical in a quickly emerging economic powerhouse?
    - gamble 15y ago
      I think it's more a result of the fact that China produces little intellectual property of its own right now. Enforcing copyright would raise costs, hinder development of copycat industries, and deplete the mountain of foreign exchange they've accumulated through exports. In addition, unlike most small countries that don't have domestic IP industries, China is not susceptible to US and European pressure. The US eventually became a champion of IP laws once its own IP industries became globally dominant. China will discover the joys of copyright and patent lawsuits once they dominate the IP industries.
      - afterburner 15y ago
        "once they dominate the IP industries" Well English isn't the primary language there, that should probably make a difference in how things play out compared to the US. EDIT: (compared to the US pirating British works)
        stcredzero 15y ago
        From what I've seen, the Chinese don't "get" the aesthetic systems of other cultures as readily or completely as the Japanese did. The Japanese seem to have a distinct edge over everyone else in East Asia in this regard.
- sebilasse 15y ago
  Slavery? By the 1860 United States Census, the slave population in the United States had grown to four million. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_United_States
- aufreak3 15y ago
  Yoga?
- cafard 15y ago
  As it happens, I bought yesterday a volume of Anthony Trollope's _North America_ (1862) in a used book store yesterday and noticed the passage "There is, I think, no task-master over free labor so exacting as an American. He knows nothing of hours, and seems to have that idea of a man which a lady always has of a horse. He thinks that he will go forever. I wish those masons in London who strike for nine hours' work with ten hours' pay could be driven to the labor market of Western America for a spell. And moreover, which astonished me, I have seen men driven and hurried, as it were forced forward at their work, in a manner which, to an English workman, would be intolerable.... The complaint that wages are held back, and not even ultimately paid, is very common. There is no fixed rule for satisfying all such claims once a week, and thus debts to laborers are contracted, and when contracted are ignored." As for intellectual property, the textile industry of New England got its start with English designs in something of an underhand way, I recall.

stcredzero 15y ago

Were we Americans this crass and exploitive in the late 1800's? Not rhetorical, but a genuine question. I've heard the opinion expressed that we indeed were.

gamble 15y ago
America used to be notorious in the 18th and 19th centuries for ignoring copyrights and patents filed in Europe. For example: "Johns describes how the first generation of American publishers came to constitute themselves as book pirates who openly violated British copyright law by systematically reprinting works that the British publishers considered their own lawful property. This laid the foundations for a vital but highly controversial book market in the new world and Johns concludes that by “the 1820s, Jacksonian America had a secure and vibrant public sphere – but to European eyes an utterly piratical one”. Source: http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/mit7/papers/Fredriksson-Draft-MiT.pdf http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/mit7/papers/Fredriksson-Draft-...
- cookiecaper 15y ago
  Evidence that our current intellectual property regime is simply not practical in a quickly emerging economic powerhouse?
  - gamble 15y ago
    I think it's more a result of the fact that China produces little intellectual property of its own right now. Enforcing copyright would raise costs, hinder development of copycat industries, and deplete the mountain of foreign exchange they've accumulated through exports. In addition, unlike most small countries that don't have domestic IP industries, China is not susceptible to US and European pressure. The US eventually became a champion of IP laws once its own IP industries became globally dominant. China will discover the joys of copyright and patent lawsuits once they dominate the IP industries.
    - afterburner 15y ago
      "once they dominate the IP industries" Well English isn't the primary language there, that should probably make a difference in how things play out compared to the US. EDIT: (compared to the US pirating British works)
      - stcredzero 15y ago
        From what I've seen, the Chinese don't "get" the aesthetic systems of other cultures as readily or completely as the Japanese did. The Japanese seem to have a distinct edge over everyone else in East Asia in this regard.
sebilasse 15y ago
Slavery? By the 1860 United States Census, the slave population in the United States had grown to four million. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_United_States
aufreak3 15y ago
Yoga?
cafard 15y ago
As it happens, I bought yesterday a volume of Anthony Trollope's _North America_ (1862) in a used book store yesterday and noticed the passage "There is, I think, no task-master over free labor so exacting as an American. He knows nothing of hours, and seems to have that idea of a man which a lady always has of a horse. He thinks that he will go forever. I wish those masons in London who strike for nine hours' work with ten hours' pay could be driven to the labor market of Western America for a spell. And moreover, which astonished me, I have seen men driven and hurried, as it were forced forward at their work, in a manner which, to an English workman, would be intolerable.... The complaint that wages are held back, and not even ultimately paid, is very common. There is no fixed rule for satisfying all such claims once a week, and thus debts to laborers are contracted, and when contracted are ignored." As for intellectual property, the textile industry of New England got its start with English designs in something of an underhand way, I recall.