stories filed under: "china"

Labels Finally Realize It's Better To License Music To Baidu Than To Fight It

from the took-'em-long-enough dept

Wed, Jul 20th 2011 6:13am — Mike Masnick

We've been following the record labels fight with Chinese search engine giant Baidu since it began in 2005. The labels kept claiming that Baidu was infringing on their copyrights by helping people find music. And while there were some questions about just how deeply involved Baidu was (including accusations that it didn't just link to mp3s, but may have hosted them knowingly as well), the company kept winning in court.

It appears that three of the big four record labels have finally realized, six years later, that rather than continuing to fight this fight, it's better to license the music and be done with it. An organization representing Universal Music, Sony Music and Warner Music has agreed to license their music to Baidu, who will make it available as a part of a licensed service. It'll be interesting to see if there are any crazy restrictions on this, but kudos to those three record labels for finally (way too late) realizing that this was always a business model issue, not a legal problem.

Filed Under: china, copyright, licenses, music
Companies: baidu, sony music, universal music, warner music group

14 Comments

41% Of Websites In China Disappeared Over The Last Year

Free Speech

from the interesting-timing dept

Fri, Jul 15th 2011 2:05pm — Mike Masnick

Just as we hear the Chinese government claim credit for cracking down on infringement online, comes the news that there are 41% fewer websites in China than a year earlier. It's not difficult to suspect censorship going on here, but, of course, the Chinese government says it's got nothing to do with it, claiming that China has a "high level of freedom of online speech." We're guessing the statement wasn't meant as a joke, even if it is one in real life. But China can defend these actions by pointing to efforts in Western nations, such as the US, to put in place laws that will allow the US to censor websites as well.

Filed Under: censorship, china

7 Comments

China Says 'Mission Accomplished' On Stopping Copyright Infringement

from the wonder-how-that-works dept

Thu, Jul 14th 2011 4:28am — Mike Masnick

With the US putting continued pressure on China about "stopping piracy," the government has been making noises lately about cracking down on infringement. Now, the Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce has declared the crackdown a success:

Marking the end of a nine-month campaign against intellectual property rights (IPR) infringement with cases worth 3.43 billion yuan ($530 million), Vice Minister of Commerce Jiang Zengwei said the situation had taken a turn for the better.

"You could say that there still exists some problems with China's IPR, but I don't endorse the idea that it is extremely serious," Jiang told reporters at a press conference.

Jiang said police had shutdown 12,854 illegal plants making pirated and counterfeit goods and arrested 9,031 suspects since the crackdown began in late October.

Of course, this is unlikely to actually slow down much infringement in the country, nor is it likely to make the US happy. They won't be happy until China is using intellectual property laws as a justification to block American competition... and then, suddenly, the US government won't be happy for a totally different reason -- never taking a break to realize that it was its own fault for pressuring the Chinese government to use these laws for its own purposes, rather than the way that some American companies want them to be used.

Filed Under: china, copyright

22 Comments

China Accused Of Putting Recording Devices In All Dual-Plate Hong Kong/China Cars

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the taking-spying-to-a-new-level dept

Fri, Jun 17th 2011 1:04am — Mike Masnick

There's a fascinating report, via Slashdot, claiming that China has been installing spying devices on all "dual-plate" Chinese-Hong Kong cars for about four years now. Officially an electronic border card, some researchers opened the box and found electronics for recording and transmitting audio. Not surprisingly, this has enabled border patrol officials to be much more effective in figuring out which cars to search:

Smugglers were the first to note something strange about the devices. A source told Apple Daily that after the cards were installed mainland authorities had no trouble picking off the cars carrying illicit goods.

�For every ten cars we ran we only had [smuggled goods] in three or four to reduce the risk, but the border agents caught all of them. The accuracy was unreal!� Apple Daily quoted the smuggler saying.

Filed Under: china, surveillance, tracking

26 Comments

Did Cheap Chinese Knockoff Phones Lead To The Arab Spring?

Surprises

from the butterfly-effect dept

Thu, Jun 16th 2011 1:03am — Mike Masnick

Last year, we wrote about how companies in China were creating really innovative mobile phones and devices, in large part because they were ignoring intellectual property laws, and could mix and match the best of everything out there. I didn't quite know what was behind the scenes as the "guts" of such phones, but Fast Company has a fascinating story, about how the massive revolution in cheap Chinese knockoff mobile phones is a result of a Taiwanese firm called MediaTek, coming out with a "mobile-phone-in-a-box" single chipset that anyone could use to make mobile phones. Buy the chipsets, build a case around it, throw on some software, and you've got a phone. What's interesting is the suggestion that this device may have eventually contributed to the Arab Spring.

Basically, the quick version of the story is that the MediaTek chipsets made it easy for "shanzai" to become massive mobile phone makers and sellers overnight. They would take the chipset, knock off features from other phones, or add a few features themselves, and, voila, a phone. As one person quoted in the article notes, you used to need a giant company to build a mobile phone. "But now, a company with five guys can do it." In fact, these firms would make small batches of all different kinds of phones to see how the market reacted. Talk about rapid prototyping and rapid innovation based on direct customer feedback...

However, with MediaTek not supporting more modern 3G mobile networks, it faced growth limits in China, and moved on to India and eventually to the Middle East, where cheap Chinese knockoff phones apparently became quite popular. The story does appear to be missing any direct evidence that the phones were used in the Arab protests, but does point to reports about such phones flooding into the region in the months before. There's certainly a correlation there, though that doesn't mean a causal relationship by any means. Either way, though, it is a fascinating story about how such a "gray market" came into being and changed markets over time.

Filed Under: arab spring, china, india, knockoffs, middle east, mobile phones

11 Comments

China Seizes Websites, Clamps Down On Speech... Uses Copyright Infringement As The Excuse

Free Speech

from the but-of-course dept

Tue, Jun 14th 2011 3:51pm — Mike Masnick

We noted recently that China had promised the US it would ramp up efforts to "stop online piracy" in China, though at about the same time, we also had noted that it had ramped up its online censorship apparatus. Once again, the two things go hand in hand, as China has shut down hundreds of sites, and put greater restrictions on the web, increasing the overall censorship via The Great Firewall of China. And... it's using copyright law as the excuse. Apparently some of the websites seized were distributing infringing files, so now China can claim that it's just doing the same thing the US is doing, when it puts massive restrictions on the internet and seizes websites.

Filed Under: censorship, china, copyright

29 Comments

Chinese Prisoners Forced To Farm Gold?

Too Much Free Time

from the forced-virtual-labor dept

Tue, May 31st 2011 5:43am — Mike Masnick

There have been many, many reports over the years about just how much "gold farming" in online games comes from China, but a new report in the Guardian is getting plenty of attention for claiming that real world inmates are being used for gold farming in prisons, where the prisons or their bosses end up with the "spoils." A whole bunch of folks have been submitting the story, and it certainly could be happening, but it does seem pretty weakly sourced. It quotes one guy who was in prison half a decade ago and did the gold farming then. Is there any more contemporary evidence that this is happening?

Filed Under: china, gold farming, prisons, wow

10 Comments

Microsoft Blaming 'Piracy' Rather Than Basic Economics For Its Struggles In China

Overhype

from the econ-101-time dept

Fri, May 27th 2011 10:13am — Mike Masnick

Steve Ballmer is the latest Microsoft exec to whine about how much "piracy" is costing the company in China, noting that they make so much less in that country than in the US, despite similar numbers of PCs being sold in each country. The mistake should be obvious to anyone who understands basic economics -- or anyone who's read the SSRC report on "piracy in emerging economies." That detailed study lays out, quite clearly, that the issue isn't "piracy," but business models and pricing. People in China, on average, make significantly less than people in the US, so it's no surprise that fewer people are willing to pay Microsoft's high prices. Automatically blaming the issue on "piracy" totally and completely misses the underlying reasons for the difference in revenue. It's a bit scary that someone like Ballmer doesn't seem to recognize this, because it suggests his strategy in China is not going to do much good at all.

Filed Under: china, economics, piracy, steve ballmer
Companies: microsoft

56 Comments

Cisco Sued For Helping China Repress Falun Gong

Legal Issues

from the under-what-basis? dept

Mon, May 23rd 2011 7:00pm — Mike Masnick

News.com has a report of a class action lawsuit, filed by 11 plaintiffs who claimed they were tortured by the Chinese government, against Cisco for apparently supplying the government with the tools to track and (in some cases, falsely) arrest supposed members of Falun Gong:

The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, alleges that Golden Shield--described in Cisco marketing materials as Policenet--resulted in the arrest of as many as 5,000 Falun Gong members. Cisco "competed aggressively" for the contracts to design the Golden Shield system "with full knowledge that it was to be used for the suppression of the Falun Gong religion," according to the lawsuit.

While I find the Chinese government's actions in suppressing dissident reprehensible, I'm not at all sure how there's a legitimate case against Cisco here. It may have made a bad decision to do business with the Chinese government, but is that illegal? While News.com doesn't supply a copy of the lawsuit (and why not?), I can't see what legitimate charges there can be here. This seems like yet another case of misapplied liability. Obviously, these people feel they can't go after the Chinese government, but using Cisco as a legal proxy doesn't make much sense. I could see protesting Cisco's actions, but suing the company seems like a stretch.

Filed Under: censorship, china, class action, falun gong, lawsuit, repression
Companies: cisco

27 Comments

EU And China Harmonize Their Approach On Censorship

Free Speech

from the but-of-course... dept

Fri, May 20th 2011 4:03am — Mike Masnick

For quite some time now, we've pointed out that people need to recognize for every attempt to "clamp down" on intermediaries in the copyright debate, we're really handing authoritarian regimes all the fodder they need to justify other forms of censorship. Glyn Moody points us to a simple comparison, showing how immediately following an EU plan to increase liability on intermediaries (secondary liability or third party liability), China announced very similar plans on intermediary liability. Remember, intermediary liability is the key tool in how China's "Great Firewall" works. The government sends out vague notes about general things it doesn't like -- and makes it clear if ISPs let that content through, they'll face liability. The response is that they aggressively censor.

Many copyright system defenders insist that the two situations are entirely different. In their minds, intermediary liability concerning copyright infringement is "good" because it's stopping illegal behavior. But that's the exact same argument made by the Chinese government. It's stopping people from speaking out, because that form of speaking out is illegal and can cause great harm. The similarities between the EU proposal and the China proposal at the very least suggest that China is learning that mimicking Western claims concerning copyright law will always give it good cover for censoring at home.

Filed Under: censorship, china, copyright, eu, filters

9 Comments

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Labels Finally Realize It's Better To License Music To Baidu Than To Fight It

from the took-'em-long-enough dept

41% Of Websites In China Disappeared Over The Last Year

from the interesting-timing dept

China Says 'Mission Accomplished' On Stopping Copyright Infringement

from the wonder-how-that-works dept

China Accused Of Putting Recording Devices In All Dual-Plate Hong Kong/China Cars

from the taking-spying-to-a-new-level dept

Did Cheap Chinese Knockoff Phones Lead To The Arab Spring?

from the butterfly-effect dept

China Seizes Websites, Clamps Down On Speech... Uses Copyright Infringement As The Excuse

from the but-of-course dept

Chinese Prisoners Forced To Farm Gold?

from the forced-virtual-labor dept

Microsoft Blaming 'Piracy' Rather Than Basic Economics For Its Struggles In China

from the econ-101-time dept

Cisco Sued For Helping China Repress Falun Gong

from the under-what-basis? dept

EU And China Harmonize Their Approach On Censorship

from the but-of-course... dept

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