3 ms·

IP theft is for the betterment of mankind. It was when the US stole British IP and it is too when China steals American IP. It's not also anywhere near as clea

IP theft is for the betterment of mankind. It was when the US stole British IP and it is too when China steals American IP. It's not also anywhere near as clear cut in self interest as you say. Even within China, Chinese companies aren't given that much IP protection. In the end 1.4 billion people are better off for it. I struggle to see how mankind isn't better off for it.

oxymoran 5y ago
Yea because the CCP has a long track record of sharing, especially with North Korea. Upstanding global citizens they are.
908B64B197 5y ago
> It was when the US stole British IP Was it really stealing? The British pretty much did nothing to stop it nor protected their IP. They certainly didn't strongly enforce it. Contrast that with Chinese theft; as soon as counterfeit products or patent infringing ones make it to US soil they are promptly seized and destroyed if found to be infringing the laws.
- prewett 5y ago
  I'm no fan of Chinese IP theft, but it is not true that the British did nothing to protect their IP. When Francis Lowell [1] went to Britain to learn about cotton mills, he could find nothing printed, and I believe it was illegal to take notes out of the country. At any rate, he was searched when he left, but he had studied the machinery and memorized plans for it. When he got back, he built the first textile mill in the US. I think publishers in the young United States, having no copyright laws on sheet music, blatantly copied sheet music from British publishers. However, I'm not able to find a source on that. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Cabot_Lowell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Cabot_Lowell
  - 908B64B197 5y ago
    > but he had studied the machinery and memorized plans for it Did he? There's no evidence for that. To me, it sounds like a smart Harvard grad just figured out a few missing pieces required to get textile manufacturing going. Wasn't his first time doing industrial processes at scale either: he successfully ran a distillery before that. It's also interesting to remember that it happened at a time England was in open war against the United States. It's not really the same right now with Chinese companies trying to get into the US market and vice versa. Both countries claim to be allied but there's a clear disregard for the laws of one particular country! Maybe a better analogy to what Francis Lowell did would be operation paperclip. The US did steal technology from Germany at the end of the war [0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip
    - GhettoComputers 5y ago
      Germany was stripped by vultures, the AK-47 is also said to have come from Germany design, methadone is a nazi drug, our warming methods for people submerged in cold is from human experiments on tortured and frozen prisoners.
kube-system 5y ago
Regardless of attitudes towards commercial IP, most countries take it pretty seriously when defense-related research is stolen. You might get off the hook in China for stealing commercial IP, but I doubt you'd get the same response for violating research agreements with the PLA.
- GhettoComputers 5y ago
  China stole a lot of the fighter jet blueprints like this stealth one. https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/hacked-how-china-stole-us-technology-its-j-20-stealth-fighter-66231 https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/hacked-how-china-stol... What is the US response? I don't even know.
  - kube-system 5y ago
    The US extradited the guy from Canada who did it and put him in federal prison, there were increasing threats of sanctions, and Obama met with Xi to talk about it.
    - GhettoComputers 5y ago
      I remember this other case too, look at all he stole, and almost 4 years in prison, I am sure he will learn his lesson and never do it again. https://www.theverge.com/2016/7/15/12196872/chinese-man-us-prison-hack-military-secrets https://www.theverge.com/2016/7/15/12196872/chinese-man-us-p... >increasing threats of sanctions So threats, no real sanctions, not that the steel sanctions did anything, somehow Vietnam started selling us all their steel after we sanction China for other reasons.
      - kube-system 5y ago
        My point above is, that’s a lot more than will happen for pirating a DVD in China.
        GhettoComputers 5y ago

oxymoran 5y ago

Yea because the CCP has a long track record of sharing, especially with North Korea. Upstanding global citizens they are.

908B64B197 5y ago

> It was when the US stole British IP Was it really stealing? The British pretty much did nothing to stop it nor protected their IP. They certainly didn't strongly enforce it. Contrast that with Chinese theft; as soon as counterfeit products or patent infringing ones make it to US soil they are promptly seized and destroyed if found to be infringing the laws.

prewett 5y ago
I'm no fan of Chinese IP theft, but it is not true that the British did nothing to protect their IP. When Francis Lowell [1] went to Britain to learn about cotton mills, he could find nothing printed, and I believe it was illegal to take notes out of the country. At any rate, he was searched when he left, but he had studied the machinery and memorized plans for it. When he got back, he built the first textile mill in the US. I think publishers in the young United States, having no copyright laws on sheet music, blatantly copied sheet music from British publishers. However, I'm not able to find a source on that. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Cabot_Lowell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Cabot_Lowell
- 908B64B197 5y ago
  > but he had studied the machinery and memorized plans for it Did he? There's no evidence for that. To me, it sounds like a smart Harvard grad just figured out a few missing pieces required to get textile manufacturing going. Wasn't his first time doing industrial processes at scale either: he successfully ran a distillery before that. It's also interesting to remember that it happened at a time England was in open war against the United States. It's not really the same right now with Chinese companies trying to get into the US market and vice versa. Both countries claim to be allied but there's a clear disregard for the laws of one particular country! Maybe a better analogy to what Francis Lowell did would be operation paperclip. The US did steal technology from Germany at the end of the war [0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip
  - GhettoComputers 5y ago
    Germany was stripped by vultures, the AK-47 is also said to have come from Germany design, methadone is a nazi drug, our warming methods for people submerged in cold is from human experiments on tortured and frozen prisoners.

kube-system 5y ago

Regardless of attitudes towards commercial IP, most countries take it pretty seriously when defense-related research is stolen. You might get off the hook in China for stealing commercial IP, but I doubt you'd get the same response for violating research agreements with the PLA.

GhettoComputers 5y ago
China stole a lot of the fighter jet blueprints like this stealth one. https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/hacked-how-china-stole-us-technology-its-j-20-stealth-fighter-66231 https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/hacked-how-china-stol... What is the US response? I don't even know.
- kube-system 5y ago
  The US extradited the guy from Canada who did it and put him in federal prison, there were increasing threats of sanctions, and Obama met with Xi to talk about it.
  - GhettoComputers 5y ago
    I remember this other case too, look at all he stole, and almost 4 years in prison, I am sure he will learn his lesson and never do it again. https://www.theverge.com/2016/7/15/12196872/chinese-man-us-prison-hack-military-secrets https://www.theverge.com/2016/7/15/12196872/chinese-man-us-p... >increasing threats of sanctions So threats, no real sanctions, not that the steel sanctions did anything, somehow Vietnam started selling us all their steel after we sanction China for other reasons.
    - kube-system 5y ago
      My point above is, that’s a lot more than will happen for pirating a DVD in China.
      - GhettoComputers 5y ago