If anyone thinks that the Chinese government has any real respect for Intellectual Property law - then I think that this story might take a crowbar to your faith in communist lip-service:China tells Microsoft to rethink 'black-out' anti-piracy tactics: report from PhysOrg.com
China has told US software giant Microsoft to reconsider controversial new anti-piracy tools that cause computer screens to turn black if a pirated program is identified, state media reported.
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Notice if you will - Big M is not making the stolen software stop functioning per se, nor having it phone home for help, nor in any other way reporting the theft other than turning the screen black. That would be just fine for most servers for example. What with the prolific release of 0 day hacks it is probable that this measure will also be hacked into mere nuisance status within 24 hours of it's release - making the argument largely symbolic - and therefore all the more damning for the Chinese government that is now protesting.
Where is it written that anyone is entitled to free upgrades? If they don't like the new version of Windows, then they do not have to buy it. The same goes for everyone else - oh & look - Vista is practically a spontaneous consumer boycott action - see how that works?
But from that we have the beginning of the long trail of political rhetoric that will now begin to ensue listing for the next decade all of the reasons why Copyright law and the enforcement of software licensing contracts should not be applied equally to China. So far we have the disparity of income in the developed and developing worlds, the 'realistic situation' in China today (i.e. no one ever buys any software), and so on.
So much for no Nationalism in the Globalized Economy. Why is it OK for India and China but not for the USA?
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