Your claims lose ground and are withtout reason.China 's GDP is much larger than Canada,so you can conclude that China is richer than Canada？IMHO,GDP per capita should be the ideal critera to judge whether a country is rich or poor.

Your article seems only serving as anti-chinese speech,not a serious thinking

I like pirated software. Windows sysytem is so expensive, and Gate's brain is filled with water!

It depends on how the loss was estimated. In China Nobody will pay US$18.99 for a CD or US$24.88 for a DVD, regardless of whether there's piracy or not. Piracy is a serious problem in China but is definitely exaggerated by the US.

the piracy problem is not just a case of economic hardship, though that is one aspect. of course it's understandable that most chinese individuals definitely can not afford real cd's and dvd's at $10-$20 USD each. but a top chinese university not being able to afford even ONE original piece of software for the entire computer department? come on. so if it's not just about the price, was it?

"Lies, damned lies, and statistics."

Piracy hurts individual creative types in the long run, but it affects the bottom line of big mega corporations with lots of lawyers and lobbyists right now.

If piracy was cut in half Microsoft would make twice as much money or more. Microsoft has done the math many times. Film studios and record companies rely on hits to fund their flops and average successes. And of course when you walk down the street it isn't indie films and indie movies that are available for sale by the subway station, but hollywood blockbusters and stupid pop albums.

People who are pro-piracy are saying they believe it is right to steal from other people. Maybe you don't know the people, maybe you just think it is some faceless corporation, Bill Gates has enough money or whatever. But if the corporations are publically traded you are stealing from every single share holder. If the companies have any kind of incentive or bonus structure you are stealing from the employees. Microsoft has a lot of shareholders and employees, you probably know one, I know I do.

If you don't like Windows, if you think it is a buggy piece of crap, use something else. Stealing Windows or video games or Britney Spears albums will not result in Windows bugs getting fixed, better video games, or better Britney Spears albums. Is it possible to have a good Britney Spears album?

Microsoft was originally in English, the only reason it is in other languages is Microsoft thinks it can make money. Is there a Cambodian Windows? Hebrew which is right to left is a lot of work for Microsoft, is Linux or Mac OS X available in Hebrew? The Chinese want Windows in Chinese they need Microsoft, the pirates can insert subtitles into the films but they can't translate and fix MS Windows. Even Microsoft can't seem to translate and fix MS Windows...

This is a stupid argument. IP laws are agreed upon by the global community. If you want to be part of the global community and take advantage of all that, that entails you have to have IP laws they are necessary for many companies to operate at all.

The quality of life in China has been improved by the opening up of the economy and increased trade with the outside world. Look at North Korea to the South, they have huge problems even feeding their populance, China has historically had those problems under many an Emperor, why even bother to count the starving peasents. They are a faceless mass just like the shareholders or employees of Microsoft... Of course if you hold Microsoft stock or work in Redmond you're probably not starving, but claiming no one gets hurt just because you don't directly see them suffer is an untruth.

The Rich always seem to get Richer, but stealing intellectual property isn't going to stop that.

What's amazing is not just that Canada is outperforming China by a factor of ten but that it's done it in 3% of the time (~150 years vs 5000 years). Considering that, one might say that Canada is more than 330 times (10 X 33.3) of a danger when it comes to IPR violations.

This is a clear & present danger to the global economy, not to mention civil society, as anyone who's been hit in the head with a fake hockey puck well knows.

Here's something weird about Canada's laws that I learned from speaking with someone at a China IP seminar (so not 100% positive this is true): it is not illegal to import counterfeit product into Canada. It is illegal to sell counterfeit product, but not to import it. This obviously makes getting counterfeits through customs rather easy.

Anyone else know if this is true or not?

Piracy is good. In Thailand nor, a pharmaceutical company called Abbot is threatening to withhold AIDS medication from the whole population of the country if they don't change their tune on foreign investment. Nobody is going to side with Abbot on this one, whether they own the patent or not, if it was possible to copy that medication and give it to people who need it, only a cold blooded psychopath would say that that is wrong. Think about it this way, if I have an apple and you have an apple, and I give you my apple and you give me your apple, we each still only have one apple. But if I have an idea and you have an idea and i give you my idea and you give me your idea, now we both have two ideas. For me to claim that my idea is still my property seems ridiculous in this context, but that is what people are doing when they say that I can not take a movie and make another copy of it myself or perform somebody else's song in a public place. I have downloaded over 6000 dollars worth of music and movies, and I've bought probably the same amount worth of counterfeit dvd's and cd's. I didn't steal the dvd's, i bought them fair and square, i paid money for them and somebody made a buck, just not Arnold Schwarzenegger. I really don't care, boo hoo, this is me feeling sorry for Arnold Schwarzenegger. Also, a lot of "counterfeit" isn't really counterfeit at all, it's the real product, just gray market and has not paid the proper duties and all that stuff. You know how I feel about that? That it is none of my f&*king concern! If I buy a counterfeit dvd from an individual, I benefit, and that other person benefits. The only loser is Steven Spielberg or somebody like that. I'm glad if he loses. I just watched 300, it was terrible, and I'm glad now that when they announce how much money they made that I won't have to think that my 15 dollars is a part of it. And 15 dollars to see a movie in theaters is bullshit anyway. The people in this business are filthy rich, and I'm here not even able to afford he damn ticket even though I work hard too. I've even worked in movies, and my family made their whole career in movies for my whole life. We're not getting any big cheques in the mail for out "intellectual property." You make the majority of the money when the job is done, and the royalties and shit like that are kind of a bonus after the fact. In any event, the whole regime of intellectual property is crumbling, as can be seen in the Thailand case and many other stories like it, not to mention in the many new ways that you can copy or "steal" entertainment. I will continue to download movies and music, rip and burn discs, steal software whenever I can, and buy counterfeit products of pretty much every kind for as long as I live. Once I've "stolen" a piece of intellectual property, it's going to be hella' hard for them to get it back, they can't take it out of my head, and they can't get paid for it cause a stone don't bleed.

dingus, you are damned cool!

"That per capita losses in Canada are greater than in China is almost inevitable: any number divided by 32 million will be larger than if it's divided by 1.3 billion."

That is completely wrong. Take a math class. -1.3 billion / 1.3 billion > -1.3 billion / 32 million.

Obviously that isn't what you meant, but your statement is still completely ridiculous. Of course China is overall a larger infringer because it has so many more people. You have to look at it proportionally, like skyyrie explains.

I'm not pro-Chinese (not anti-Chinese either, though I am pro-U.S.). If I was anti-some country, I would attack it in a way that actually makes sense, and there is plenty to attack China on.

Also, you should note that between 1800-1860 half of American bestsellers were pirated English novels. The U.S. and many other countries didn't recognize foreign copyrights (bilateral treaties were necessary). Check out http://ipjustice.org/IPJ_History_of_US_Piracy.pdf.

So basically it was alright for the developed world to violate copyrights when they were developing, but now the developing countries cannot. Of course they did enter into agreements freely such as WTO saying they would recognize them. However, you could probably argue they were forced to for trade reasons unfairly.