Word: zhou
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Zhou Fukuan, a cheerful 32-year-old who runs the DVD stand across the street from my old Shanghai apartment, just smiles when I tell him that the U.S. has filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over China's rampant infringement of intellectual-property rights. "I hadn't heard that," he says, "but this sort of thing happens a lot-the government says they'll crack down on [piracy]. It usually lasts a few days, and then...
...simply a joke. "Competition has never been tougher," Li Haihua tells me as he peddles DVDs of new Hollywood films for 60? apiece on Shanghai's Huaihai Street, just blocks from a big antipiracy billboard. "There are more [sellers] than ever before, and the price has come down." Zhou says he earns less than 13? per disc. "It's definitely a volume business," he adds wearily...
...China could, in theory, crack down on this business - not so much by going after street vendors like Zhou, but by going after the source and thoroughly rooting out and shutting down the small, makeshift factories that churn out copies of these pirated discs. There are periodic raids, to be sure, but it would take a lot more effort - much more than the government is currently expending - to really put an end to it, and I find it difficult to believe the Chinese leadership cares that much. Maybe, in time, a WTO case will change that, but Zhou...
...right. The Chinese actually have made some progress on IP protection over the years - and that's why companies like Microsoft and Merck want no part of the WTO complaint. But for the film and music business, the claim that there has been progress is simply a joke. Ask Zhou, or any of the other street vendors in Shanghai, Beijing or anywhere else in China. "Competition has never been tougher," Li Haihua told me as he did a brisk business selling brand new American-made films for five RMB apiece (the equivalent of about 60 cents) on Huaihai Street...
...business don't like this at all. As more and more people have piled into the business, their margins have come down. After paying his "middleman" for a new supply of DVDs about once every two weeks - he has about 1000 titles for sale at any one time - Zhou says he earns less than one RMB per disc sold. "It's definitely a volume business," he says wearily. When I press him on where his middleman gets his product - that is, who's actually making these pirated DVDs - Zhou smiles and plays dumb. He knows I'm a journalist...