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Comment by nsporillo | Hacker News Reader

Average voter doesn't care about the merits of competitive advantage. Maybe if the Chinese actually opened their markets up to competition would we see true benefits in the west. The problem of course is preventing the majority of the wealth going straight to the top.

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Maybe if China played by the rules, and did something about ip theft...

China IS doing something about industrial espionage: they're supporting and encouraging it. This isn't dissimilar from what all the Western economies did with industrial espionage during the 1800's. In Rhode Island, we have the first mill in the US, known as Slater Mill, which was created by an industrial spy who stole secrets from England. The English were ahead in industry for textiles, coal mining, steam engines, steel, railroads, and all the other Europeans and Americans sent spies there to "tour" the factories or "apprentice" only to disappear just in time.

So, we shouldn't forget history and be shocked that the US is having its economic secrets stolen, as that's happened numerous times in the past.

no one is acting surprised, they’re acting upset, and rightly

I really hope they don't. Western IP laws have become suffocating to innovation (life of author +70 years copyright, software patents), and need to be weakened. Perhaps if China is successful with weaker IP laws it will get some politicians off their ass on the issue.

i would settle for not having our businesses hacked by their state

How is theft of trade secrets going to undermine draconian copyright laws? Two wrongs don't make a right.

Two almost completely unrelated wrongs don't make anything.

Trade secrets and copyright are both types of intellectual property. They aren't unrelated.

Well, they're both lumped into this bucket called "intellectual property". Indy cars and unicycles are both vehicles, too. They share the property of having wheels. That doesn't make them particularly related.

The laws for copyright and for trade secrets are quite different. In fact, when someone talks about "intellectual property" rather than about one of the specific kinds (patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets), they often wind up reaching wrong conclusions. They try to apply concepts from one kind of IP on another kind, and it doesn't work.

So: Theft of trade secrets isn't going to fix draconian copyright law, not only because two wrongs don't make a right, but also because copyright and trade secrets don't have all that much to do with each other.

Trade secrets are even worse than draconian copyright laws arguably. The copyright at least calls for preservation. Trade secrets keep the knowledge from circulating and laws encouraging it do it more so if someone bypasses them for more competition.

What makes you think there are two wrongs?

Ah yes, Europe and button copyrights all over again... (this plays big into USA's history)

> Average voter doesn't care about the merits of competitive advantage

Sadly, neither do people who have the opportunity to get ahead without facing competition in the first place.

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