🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <kn6v28INNi4f@agate.berkeley.edu>, jbuck@forney (Joe Buck) writes:
>Even
>now, they've got the US Government shaking down China because China
>is taking a rather GNUist view of intellectual property rights; you
>can expect trade sanctions to follow.  (That is, China doesn't want
>to have to respect US patents and such, and they copy software freely).

Why should China have to respect US patents?  I don't think any
country except the US respects US patents.

#minor US-centrism flame on

It seems to be hard to grasp for some people, but at least in
principle there are many independent countries in the world, each of
which has their own laws and traditions.  The laws of a country
generally apply only in the area of the country.  Of course for U.S.
citizens in general it might be difficult to understand this, seeing
what the U.S. government did with Noriega for example and what other
means the U.S. government is using to pressure other countries of the
world to do what it wants.

#flame off

Talking about copyrights rather than patents which copying software
has to do with, the same thing applies, though there's an
international contract signed by many countries called the Berne
Convention which guarantees some copyright protection in all the
countries who have signed and ratified the contract.  Apparently China
is not one of the signees.  By the way neither was USA until a few
years ago.

//Jyrki