[Nettime-bold] "China:Imitation Nation"-Salon

[Michael H Goldhaber <mgoldh@well.com>]

The Salon article "China:Imitation Nation" by Lisa Movius,

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/07/08/imitation_nation/

is interesting both in providing current details about Chinese IP
"piracy" and in its attitudes. while Movius emphasizes that piracy
imprves the lot of the average Chinese, she insists without explanation
that pricay is bad for the Chinese economy, and that most Vhinese know
it is wrong. She then explains why they indulge in this a[parently
harmful and morally wrong action by reference to the peculiarities of
the Confucian moral code. She does not explain why this code, which
gives such power to leaders fails to prevent priacy, just as she takes
it for granted that IP piracy is indeed morally wrong. (Morality as
defined by Western publishers is apparently not relaitve but absolute.)

Surely for many of the Western artists and musicians whose CD's or books
are pirated, the net effect is that they are reaching a much wider
audience than they would otherwise have. If Western publishers were
willing to accept more reasonable levels of profit, they could achieve
the same results and also eliminate this sort of piracy, though, horror
of horrors  fake Hugo Boss suits would still be sold. Perhaps the
unthinking cupididty of western publishers does achieve one good thing:
it allows numerous Chinese to make a living selling priated CDs and the
like.
--

Michael H. Goldhaber

mgoldh@well.com
http://www.well.com/user/mgoldh/


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