Wow. This is a crazy article I saw yesterday in Seven Days here in Dubai.
The money quote is: "Shouldn't others be able to use those characters besides Disney?"
Um, well, no, at least, not if you believe in international copyright ...
www.7days.ae ‘We are not stealing from anyone’ April 11, 2007
With its slogan 'Disneyland is too far,' Beijing’s Shijingshan Amusement Park features a replica of Cinderella’s Castle, staff dressed like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and other Disney images. None of this is authorised by Disney but that has not stopped the state-owned park from creating its own counterfeit version of the Magic Kingdom in a brazen example of the sort of open and widespread copyright piracy that has Washington fuming.
The United States announced that it would file a case at the World Trade Organisation over 'rampant' copyright piracy in China, a practice which US companies say deprives them of billions of dollars each year. But 31-year-old housewife Zhang Li betrays a typical Chinese attitude on the issue while chasing her young son around the park. "I don't understand why that is such a big problem. Shouldn't others be able to use those characters besides Disney?" she asks.
Her view is common in a country where lax societal and law enforcement attitudes toward copyright protection has seen the counterfeit goods industry become a key part of the national economy. A US Congressional panel says China's own data suggests such goods account for 15 to 20 per cent of goods made in the country.
Such numbers seem hard to dispute in Beijing, where one can spend a morning at an imitation Disney amusement park, have lunch at a KFC knock-off, shop for fake foreign-brand fashions in the afternoon and relax at night with a DVD of a Hollywood film that is still in the theatres in the United States.
"It's part of living in China," Canadian businessman Brian Dugood. "Why buy the original when you can get a pretty good copy at one-tenth the price?"
Indeed, China faces a huge task in changing attitudes in a country where most consumers have little hope of affording legitimate DVDs and designer clothing, said Zhang Zhifeng, a member of the state-sponsored China Intellectual Property Society. "There's a lack of consciousness of International Property Rights in China. People don’t really feel that the use of pirated goods is bad," he said.
Moreover, China's stability-conscious government has little incentive to crack down forcefully on a key economic sector, he added. Lei Danni, who runs a small shop selling fake DVD and compact discs, brushes off accusations by American companies that his business hurts sales of legitimately-produced software. "We aren't stealing from anyone. Most of my customers say they wouldn’t buy the real thing anyway because its too expensive. So there is no connection."
