AP Exclusive: China Ministry posted bootleg 'Liar's Poker'

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

SHANGHAI (AP) — A complete bootlegged copy of Michael Lewis' bestselling book about Wall Street, "Liar's Poker," was hosted on the official website of the Chinese Commerce Ministry, the agency responsible for intellectual property protection in China, The Associated Press has found.

How and why a PDF, in English, of Lewis' raucous memoir about the excesses of Wall Street in the 1980s ended up on the ministry's site remains a mystery. The ministry did not respond to multiple requests for comment this week, but on Friday removed the page from its website.

China has a long and troubled history with copyright infringement. Despite high-level attempts to bolster enforcement, particularly as Beijing turns to innovation as a source of economic growth, piracy remains rampant — and widely tolerated.

Andrew Hay, director of security research at OpenDNS, a network security firm based in San Francisco, confirmed the file was hosted on the Ministry of Commerce website and was not a spoof.

FULL story at link.



In this Thursday, June 25, 2015 photo, a pirated copy of the book "Liar's Poker" by Michael Lewis, hosted on and loaded from a website run by the Chinese Commerce Ministry, is displayed on a computer screen in Beijing. A complete bootlegged copy of Lewis' bestselling book about Wall Street, "Liar's Poker," was hosted on the official website of the ministry, the agency responsible for intellectual property protection in China, The Associated Press has found. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/c56a4160fdef4b1ab2fdf07c468d2143/ap-exclusive-china-ministry-posted-bootleg-liars-poker

[PoliticAverse]

1. Someone is going to get a nasty letter from a legal firm. n/t

[jtuck004]

2. They did us a favor. Had everyone read the book they would have been more secure

against predatory bank$ter/donors that see them as nothing more than menu items. The crime isn't copying - the real crimes are inside the book.

Instead there is all this stupid drama about copying the book, and inequality rages.

It's like a police shooting in which the focus becomes a video instead of the victim.

Oh well, if it was the kind of world where the real crime got more attention we wouldn't be where we are...so maybe we aren't wired to fix it.

[Kelvin Mace]

3. Lewis' books should be required reading

In all schools.

[davidpdx]

4. They did it because they can

[Fred Sanders]

5. OMG, now they are stealing American literature? When will the nightmare end? Gas up the missiles!