Piracy Bust

contentions ^ | 7.25.2007 | Gordon G. Chang

[Contentions]

This morning, the New York Times reported that Chinese authorities, working with the FBI, seized more than $500 million of counterfeit Microsoft and Symantec software and arrested 25 people involved in the counterfeiting operation. “This is a real milestone,” said David Finn, Microsoft associate general counsel. Finn is right. The Chinese deserve great credit for busting a ring that looks as if it were responsible for at least $2 billion of pirated software sales. (As Gao Feng, Deputy Director General of China’s Ministry of Public Security, has said, profit margins for software piracy exceed those for drug trafficking.)

Unfortunately, with those enormous profits, counterfeiters have been able to buy off the political system maintained by the Communist Party. Officials at the lowest rungs of that organization personally profit from protecting counterfeiters and often own part of the counterfeiting factories. The officials then buy protection for themselves from their superiors in the Party’s entrenched patronage system. The upshot of all this? Piracy in China is not going away anytime soon.

[Popocatapetl]

$500M in Microsoft and Symantec software? That’s what, like 100,000 disks?

[gb63]

Two million copies of XP Pro ‘Corp’ edition easily downloaded from Chinese warez sites. Very possible.

[gb63]

By the way, I wasn’t referring to what they seized. I was just pointing out how easy to reach $500M in supply terms. Almost all software can be found somewhere on those sites, sometimes free, other times for cheap payments.

[counterpunch]

Is everything coming out of China fake these days?

[Vision]

Something is going on as in the last few days AM radio ads in Baltimore are posting rewards up to 100k for turning in an employer of counterfeit software.

[Barney Gumble]

The Chinese combating piracy is like the Saudis combating terrorism. They do a little on the surface so it looks good.

The Chinese do not have any concept of intellectual property.

[struwwelpeter]

China's not the only pirate in the woodpile.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

"The most egregious and dangerous piracy operations are in China, Russia, India, and Brazil, according to the survey." An Internet source, http://www.nysun.com/article/49652

Is that BRIC? Oh well.. 10,428 10,427 piracy rings in China. (The numbers are my WAGS)

[tajgirvan]

Big Deal...I got rid of Symantec/Norton...too many problems and slowed my computer by 25%.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Ping.