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It's interesting that we use the word "stealing" for this. Intellectual property is a wishy-washy term, defined entirely by the laws of the land. If China's law

by aegiso 13y ago

It's interesting that we use the word "stealing" for this. Intellectual property is a wishy-washy term, defined entirely by the laws of the land. If China's laws and philosophy don't recognize United States IP laws, then it's not really "stealing" on their end. Perpetuating the mentality that US ideas of IP are the only ones in town does a great deal of harm (see: RIAA, MPAA), and quickly leads to absurdity. Maybe we all deserve Chinese justice on account of us stealing their paper technology?

rayiner 13y ago
China does not have the kind of high minded ideals that angsty westerners like to project on to them. They are pragmatists. The see the arc of their economy following that of the U.S. Watch what happens as they become a net exporter of technology rather than merely a user of technology.
aneth4 13y ago
This has nothing to do with different ideas of IP. China has similar IP laws as the US, and certainly tries to enforce them when the theft is in the other direction.
PavlovsCat 13y ago
It's funny how things change... Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Isaac McPherson (13 Aug. 1813) [ http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_8_8s12.html http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_8_8s12.... ] "If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property."

by aegiso 13y ago

rayiner 13y ago

China does not have the kind of high minded ideals that angsty westerners like to project on to them. They are pragmatists. The see the arc of their economy following that of the U.S. Watch what happens as they become a net exporter of technology rather than merely a user of technology.

aneth4 13y ago

This has nothing to do with different ideas of IP. China has similar IP laws as the US, and certainly tries to enforce them when the theft is in the other direction.

PavlovsCat 13y ago

It's funny how things change... Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Isaac McPherson (13 Aug. 1813) [ http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_8_8s12.html http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_8_8s12.... ] "If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property."