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IP and Law
IP outlaws and the day after tomorrowPosted by Joel Martinsen on Wednesday, April 11, 2007 at 3:00 PM
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Last year's reports elaborated on Li's complaints: his two plays were unpublished, but in 2002 he submitted them to China's Science Fiction World magazine and the 2003 Xia Yan Film Literature Prize. Two things distinguish this particular infringement case from the run-of-the-mill plagiarism allegations that seem to crop up every few weeks and which don't usually rate a mention here. First, the reports link the case to the American WTO complaint - Xinhua's English-language article, though less detailed than the Chinese version, mentions the US government's filing in the second paragraph. The timing's just a happy coincidence, however; according to news reports from last year, the Dongying court predicted that it would require at least 10 months lead time, and set a preliminary court date in April. Li had been gathering evidence since late 2004 and had filed his lawsuit a number of times before the court finally accepted it. Second, a bizarre fictionalized account of the affair done as a pastiche of traditional Chinese popular novels was posted to some online forums in late 2004. Li Jianmin and his friend "The Black Whirlwind" Li Kui navigate the labyrinth of Song bureaucracy to find out how the foreigners got their hands on his script. (Part I, Part II, Part III) UPDATE (2007.07.15): Xinhua announces, via AP, that Li Jianmin lost his suit: "Li could not prove that his plays were completed in 2001 and 2002, nor could he establish that 20th Century Fox had access to his plays, Xinhua said, citing the decision by the Intermediate People's Court of Dongying, in eastern China's Shandong province." Links and Sources
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Comments on IP outlaws and the day after tomorrow
IMHO current IP laws are outdated. It's there for the corporate fat cats. These multi-national corps. needs to learn how to profit in new ways.
But hey I suppose it's the only thing America got these days. The factory jobs are else where. Food exports are meh. Cars come from Japan. Only thing worth milking are these intellectual properties, i.e movies, music and games. It's the only thing we got yo!
the fellow suing fox for ripping off his unpublished (and I am sure unread) play: pissing in the wind