U.S. Claims Victory In WTO Complaint On China Piracy

[OhioChick]

Source: Reuters

Washington launched the dispute in 2007 out of frustration at rip-offs of films, branded goods and other trademarked property openly available in Chinese cities.

By Reuters
InformationWeek
January 26, 2009 12:10 PM

WASHINGTON - The United States claimed victory Monday in a groundbreaking World Trade Organization case against China for failing to protect and enforce copyrights and trademarks on a wide range of goods.

"Today, a WTO panel found that a number of deficiencies in China's IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) regime are incompatible with its WTO obligations," U.S. Trade Representative Peter Allgeier said in a statement.

"We will engage vigorously with China on appropriate corrective actions to ensure that U.S. rights holders obtain the benefits of this decision," Allgeier said.

Washington launched the dispute in 2007 out of frustration at rip-offs of films, branded goods and other trademarked property openly available in Chinese cities.

The International Intellectual Property Alliance, a coalition of U.S. music, movie, book and software industry groups, conservatively estimates that piracy in China costs them more than $3.7 billion in lost sales.

The United States persuaded the dispute settlement panel that China violated WTO rules by barring copyright protection for movies, music and books that have not been approved by state censors for legitimate sale, Allgeier said.

The panel also said it was "impermissible" for China to allow public auction of counterfeit goods seized by Chinese customs authorities, with only the requirement that the fake brand or trademark be removed from the good, Allgeier said.

The United States failed to persuade the WTO panel on one main point of its case: that Chinese copyright pirates and counterfeiters have no fear of criminal prosecution because the government's threshold for bringing a case is too high.




Read more: http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212902546

[Azlady]

1. Good -n/t

[SlicerDicer-]

2. Wow this is going to go a whole hell of alot of nowhere. Great waste of cash. Lets do MOAR please.

[zelta gaisma]

3. WTO backs US in Chinese piracy dispute 66.6 per cent guilty

Source: The Register

The World Trade Organization has said that China should change its copyright and anti-counterfeit laws to provide better legal protection to foreign products, based on trade complaints filed by the US government.

A WTO panel of judges ruled today that China's intellectual property laws don't meet some of the obligations required by the Geneva-based trade arbiter. The panel's report agreed with two of the three arguments of the US complaint first filed in 2007, but disagreed that China needs to alter its laws that exempt small-scale counterfeiters from prosecution.




Read more: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/26/wto_rules_on_us_chinese_piracy_dispute/

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.....................................
Ok who here thinks Chine is sitting over there going "P'shaw! bite us"

[DJ13]

4. How long will the world continue to ignore that China is a rogue state?

They know the world wont do anything to them, so they dont have any reason to really change anything.

[wickerwoman]

7. They're bootlegging Louis Vuitton bags not smuggling suitcase nukes into the Superbowl.

"Rogue state" is a pretty absurd term to apply here. The Shanghai government shuts down the bootleg shops every year for three days for the Film Festival. The vendors schedule their vacations around it and re-open as soon as the foreigners leave town. The government cares about saving face in front of the US but the problem is absolutely epidemic and there's not that much they can do about it.

Frankly, I could give a shit if Chinese kids want to watch uncensored pirated copies of Friends and the OC.

It's not costing the film industry $8.6 billion (or whatever absurd number the article cited) because none of these people would be buying these movies otherwise. At 75 cents a DVD, it's almost the only form of entertainment that working class people in Chinese cities can afford. Buying a DVD is cheaper than admission to the public parks in Shanghai. Jack the price up to $25 a disc like it is in the US and absolutely no one will buy it (most people are feeding a family of three or four on $25 a week). But instead of looking for a business model that actually works in China, the entertainment industry would rather bitch and moan to the WTO.

I think a lot more of the thawing and opening up of China to the West is down to the wide-spread availability of uncensored pirated American movies, music and TV shows in China than anything the US government has done recently.

[Nihil]

8. "The world" has ignored that the USA has been a rogue state for long enough ...

... so there's not exactly a lot of precedent for expecting change
in the case of China ...

The world is just full of "rogue states".

:shrug:

[JuniperLea]

5. I get a little paranoid whenever I read such things...

China owns so much of our debt... and they get a little hinky on the insult meter... in short: they scare the bejesus out of me.

[madrchsod]

6. oh no !!

what are we going to do without all those knock-off products! junco jeans discovered all their jeans in the midwest were knock-offs, knock off purses,watches,and clothes fuel the chinese economy and satisfy the emerging chinese middle class that can`t afford the real thing...just like the middle class in this country.

[JuniperLea]

10. What if we piss them off...

And they call in our debts?

[Sultana]

11. Who will buy their shit then?

:D

[JuniperLea]

12. An exercise in tail chasing! LOL!!! eom

[Romulox]

9. This is a publicity stunt. China is a "most favored nation" and will continue to be one

I could give a fuck that US movies are pirated in China so long as the US government's official policy is to undermine our industrial base via "free trade" with an authoritarian dictatorship.