Chinese Software Piracy Hurting Domestic Tech Industry

3 Jul, 2006 at 2:32pm ET Article published in Tech

Stories about software piracy in the far east have been commonplace for years, but it isn’t just the established western companies like Microsoft who are getting robbed. Thanks to the thievery, Chinese program developers are finding it hard to get a foothold in their own country.

Kingsoft Corp.’s English-Chinese dictionary program is used on most of China’s 60 million PCs. That’s the good news.

The bad news: Kingsoft doesn’t make any money from it, because 90 percent of those copies are pirated.

One by one, the Beijing-based software maker has seen its sales of such popular products destroyed after black market producers flooded the market with cheap copies.

[center]~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~[/center]

“Piracy has had a big impact on us, making it so we can’t get powerful and compete with Microsoft,” said Ren Jian, a former Microsoft manager who is Kingsoft’s chief operating officer.

Bleeding companies overseas may not seem like a high priority problem, but killing industries in your own backyard is not going to be a good thing for China over the long haul. Politicians throughout the world are notorious for having a weak grasp of technology-related issues. Perhaps this will open a few eyes.

Source: Fox News

Comments

3 Jul 2006 ~ 10:15pm Leonardo No offense to the news poster, but this really is nothing new at all. China is the utopia for pirated and counterfeited everything. The PRC is catapulting from third world status to industrialized nation very quickly. Theft of foreign technology, trademarked, and copyrighted material has saved China untold billions of dollars research, development, testing, and legitimate purchasing from other countries.

Different set of morals over there.
3 Jul 2006 ~ 11:04pm airbornflght I think it was more about government officials in china taking action against piracy, because it may be/will be hurting their economy.

Yes, china does have a different set of morals, hell they even copy cars, there are certain cars that some chinese companies make, that I can take off, and would be a direct fit off a car that was made in detroit.
4 Jul 2006 ~ 12:11am Thrax You know the $30,000+ ultra high-end amplifiers?

You can buy the assembly guide and parts for one for less than $200 in China.
4 Jul 2006 ~ 12:21am airbornflght who would pay $30k for an amplifier? For $30k, this thing better make ennough power for me to completly remove the roof from my house.

On another note, I think I may be taking a trip to china
4 Jul 2006 ~ 12:41am profdlp

Leonardo wrote:

No offense to the news poster, but this really is nothing new at all...

What's "new" is that there are emerging software companies located in China who are now feeling the pinch from piracy. In the past it was generally foreign outfits who were getting ripped off. Frankly, it is so widespread there that I'm surprised to hear that any local businesses are even trying to make a go of it there.
4 Jul 2006 ~ 1:03am airbornflght

profdlp wrote:

What's "new" is that there are emerging software companies located in China who are now feeling the pinch from piracy. In the past it was generally foreign outfits who were getting ripped off. Frankly, it is so widespread there that I'm surprised to hear that any local businesses are even trying to make a go of it there.

Yeh, you think that the local companies would know whats going on and what will happen to them. At least they are trying to make an honest buck, as a lot of them seem they would rather copy some one elses work.
4 Jul 2006 ~ 1:10am Leonardo Airborn, you and Prof are both correct. And Prof, I don't take away from the news linking. As far as this being new, I still stand by my statement above. The reporting on this type of thing may be new, but such happenings are common, if not the norm in China. Heck, a PRC university official was recently brought down for taking one manufacturer's microprocesser, scratching off the markings, and claiming it his own development. Government and business corruption (and world class theft) unfortunately, are par for the course in the PRC.
4 Jul 2006 ~ 1:59am Leonardo

At least they are trying to make an honest buck, as a lot of them seem they would rather copy some one elses work.

Well said.
4 Jul 2006 ~ 3:36am RWB So... Nuk'em all?

While the above comment is a joke, it did remind me that war is buisness and buisness is good. When you have a whole country doing such things that impact buisness.... well it doesn't take a genious to know what happens next. Of course it would be under the guise of something more publicly accepted. Not to start off a debate or anything, but this is my own take of it. I don't think it's gotten bad enough to merrit such an act though, but you bet your balls their are plenty of higher ups thinking about it.
4 Jul 2006 ~ 9:55am profdlp RWB, do you even bother to read any of these news articles?

Are you suggesting that we are likely to go to war against China because Chinese pirates are ripping off Chinese software developers?

Please try and keep your comments relevant to the subject of the news item.
4 Jul 2006 ~ 10:51am Enverex

profdlp wrote:

Are you suggesting that we are likely to go to war against China because Chinese pirates are ripping off Chinese software developers?

That's the American way! Any reason is a good reason!
4 Jul 2006 ~ 12:09pm airbornflght

Enervex wrote:

That's the American way! Any reason is a good reason!

America..**** Yeh!!!! j/k
4 Jul 2006 ~ 5:56pm RWB

profdlp wrote:

RWB, do you even bother to read any of these news articles?

Are you suggesting that we are likely to go to war against China because Chinese pirates are ripping off Chinese software developers?

Please try and keep your comments relevant to the subject of the news item.

NOPE I don't read any of them, sadly I had just gotten home from a bar so my sence of humor was a tad off when posting
4 Jul 2006 ~ 6:09pm Thrax

Enverex wrote:

That's the American way! Any reason is a good reason!

Stop being a tool.
4 Jul 2006 ~ 6:15pm Enverex

Thrax wrote:

Stop being a tool.

Twas a joke. ====|)
4 Jul 2006 ~ 8:40pm Leonardo Chill out guys, OK?
5 Jul 2006 ~ 2:37am bothered

profdlp wrote:

Are you suggesting that we are likely to go to war against China because Chinese pirates are ripping off Chinese software developers?

Highly unlikely. However, when/if China (or India) grow to the point of becoming economic superpowers it will be a differant world and at the rate they are going it won't be long. If they want this to be sustainable though they have to sort the pirates out. I'd suspect not much will be done just yet as it is a very effective shortcut to prosperity.
5 Jul 2006 ~ 7:16pm TheLostSwede Anybody up for opening a certified Microsoft store in midtown Beijing?
5 Jul 2006 ~ 7:19pm airbornflght That'll work... For a whole 30 Seconds