By Cristina Fernández Pereda

Copied and sold products in China cost the United States $1,000 million per year. China entered the World Trade Organization (WTO) and became a threat to the economy of many countries. The losses on a worldwide scale amount to more than 13,000 million euros per year.

Pirating has surpassed the challenged of imitations. That industry obtains exact copies and offers the products at much lower prices. It is nearly impossible to distinguish the original copy and in the end the price helps decide which one to buy.

The protests against China are shielded by the protection of copyright privileges of the maker. However, market laws come into play. Many foreign companies have seen their products copied which keeps them from selling the originals. The exports do not work because another form of competition has come into the Chinese market.

The fight against pirating in China becomes an international problem because its copies are foreign products. Perhaps when Chinese products are copied the real persecution will start. One of the reasons used to justify pirating is the difficulty of developing countries to acquire new technologies from the more advantaged countries. This reason explains why the version of Windows 95, that cost $100 in the United States, would sell for just $4 in China.

International pressures are insufficient. The United States accused China, upon entiring the WTO, of disloyal commercial practices. But no one has gotten China to being implementing intellectual property laws. Its concept of copying is different than the West’s, por which the fight starts from a different place. Moreover, the closing of stores and markets dedicated exclusively to the sale of copied producted would increase unemployment in China. The government has already decided that it would rather fight.

Chinese pirating has no limits, from videogames to clothing stores to software information, including pharmaceuticals. One of the most notable conflicts involved General Motors with one of its affiliates in China when they found out some of the characteristics of one of their models were copied. The copy of automobiles is no longer an absurdity in a market that will accumulate to 18% increase in worldwide demand in the next ten years.

In its most well-known version, the copy of CDs or DVDs makes up 90% of sales on the Chinese market. The price of originals is unreachable for most of the population who do not even think of buying them. Thus, one of the commercial strategies followed by western companies such as Sony is lower the price of products in China. Sony launched a Play Station 2 console much cheaper, intended to convince a potential market of 1,300 million people.

Pirating is another manifestation of inequalities. Countries that cannot access certain products, decide to copy them, imitate them or put the brand of the more advanced countries. In China, Chinese products would not sell. Although the copies are made in China, the tag says they are from the West. Once again the brand is marketed, not the product. And the brand means development.

(En Español)