Word: zhou
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...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...
...Zhou Fu-kuan, a cheerful 32-year-old, just smiled when I told him that the United States was filing suit against China at the World Trade Organization (WTO) over intellectual property infringement. I've known Zhou for nearly two years. He runs the DVD stand across the street from the apartment building I used to live in here in Shanghai, and over that time I've literally bought a couple of hundred pirated movies from him. "I hadn't heard that," he said of the U.S.'s WTO suit, "but this sort of thing happens a lot - the government...
...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...
...define what the Second Amendment’s reference to “arms” meant, Fromar responded, “Those are the questions that are less fundamental than whether you or I can possess weapons.” —Staff writer Kevin Zhou can be reached at kzhou@fas.harvard.edu...