Why do some Chinese steal IP from other nations?

2 pointsaarongray6y ago3 comments

It seems that one major reason is because they are communist and they don't believe in private property. They believe that no one has a right to have their own property and so everything must be shared for the good of all. So when "evil" American companies try to protect their IP, the Chinese view themselves as being the good guy by opening up that knowledge so that anyone can use it. Pretty interesting thing that I haven't heard talked about very much. Here are some more thoughts on this:

https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs201/projects/communism-computing-china/intelproperty.html

Anyone here have any other perspectives or more to share on this topic?

3 comments

3 comments · 3 top-level

simonblack6y ago

Most countries on the way up steal IP.

The British were very annoyed when US companies stole their IP in the 1800s. https://www.pri.org/stories/2014-02-18/us-complains-other-na...

Once countries start producing their own IP, they see the other side of the coin, and try to hold on to what is theirs.

ideophobia6y ago

I've never heard this argument before. Generally China steals IP because it's faster and cheaper to build something when you can skip years or decades of R&D. I have trouble swallowing the "shared for the good of all" argument because I can't think of any instances where they actually do that. Instead it appears they just use stolen IP to fast track localized versions of things, or offer competitive products that undercut western prices.

China has for many years been relegated to the role of cheap laborious manufacturing for other countries, only to be stuck buying back the same things they helped build. Much of their IP theft supports plans to move away from that model and toward more localized advanced manufacturing and production. See the "Made in China 2025" plan for a literal blueprint of all the areas they plan on bolstering their economy, and you'll realize they overlap with IP theft instances.

PaulHoule6y ago

I don't think it is just Chinese people.

One reason you don't see open source device drivers for some products is that the vendors don't want patent lawyers looking through the source code for evidence that their chips infringe patents. From the viewpoint of those patent holders, those products involve "IP theft".

Long term the picture will change for China because China is developing a big film industry, producing more patents than other countries, etc. Someday the story will be that the Chinese are monpolizing IP and other countries need to "steal" it.