STUDENTS’ LACK OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AWARENESS
Martin Wolff
Sun Yat-sen University
INTRODUCTION
Intellectual Property Protection remains a hot topic in China. The west applies constant pressure on China for more enforcement and China responds with increased enrollment in law schools, retention of more prosecutors and an annual increase of prosecutions and convictions. Yet, IP violations remain on the increase. We first addressed this issue back in 2006, Best IP Protection is Through Education, Not More Enforcement Actions, TESOL Law Journal: January 2006 Vol 1. We now explore the extent of IP knowledge with 700 post-graduate students at one of China’s top ten universities, Sun Yat-sen, Guangzhou.
CONTENT BASED HOLISTIC ENGLISH
In the Fall 2009 term, 350 post-graduate students in the Holistic English Program were assigned the movie “Working Girl.” This movie is a soft introduction to the personal importance of Intellectual Property Protection. (All of the students are science majors. in an oral English as a Foreign Language course.) Before the classroom discussion of the movie, the students were assigned to read many articles that gave a broad overview of copyright, patent, trademark, personal endorsements and corporate secrets. They also read a synopsis of the Yao Ming vs. Coca Cola case filed in the Shanghai Court and Best IP Protection is Through Education, Not More Enforcement Actions, TESOL Law Journal: January 2006 Vol 1.
The students were given three separate questions for discussion:
1. How could Tess have better protected her idea from theft by her boss? The students tended to over think this issue and came up with very convoluted and complex answers. The simplest answer is sometimes the best. Tess should have made a copy of her notes before handing them over to her boss and Tess should have had her boss sign a receipt for the notes. Utilizing today’s technology, Tess could have sent her notes as an email attachment.
2. Why is it important to protect intellectual property? A super majority of the students stated that creativity must be rewarded to encourage more creativity because new inventions and things will advance society and create a better off harmonious society. It was also considered a matter of protecting personal wealth.
3. What is the difference between stealing a DVD from a department store and stealing a song or movie by free download from the internet?
There were three prevalent views. First, stealing from the department store is dangerous because someone may see you and you could go to jail. The internet is anonymous and you can’t get caught. This answer raised numerous additional questions for discussion, such as:
1. Are these students computer illiterate? Don’t they understand IP addresses and footprints? Have they not read the news from the USA about people being put in jail and fined more than $1 mil for illegally downloading music and movies for free? Don’t they know that their Government has more than 30,000 internet police tracking their every move on the internet?
2. What about morality? Stealing is ok so long as you believe you can’t get caught? Speeding is ok so long as there are no police around? And what about murder? Second, if a song or movie is available on the internet it is not stealing to download a free copy. Everything on the internet is for everyone and if it was stealing the Government would close the web site. This harkens back to the socialist mentality that the Government owns everything on behalf of the people.
These post-graduate students were truly surprised to learn that their ideas were completely inconsistent with reality and the rule of law in China. Third, many students expressed the opinion that China needs western computer software, songs and films for its further development but the western prices are too high for originals. Piracy was justified as a just punishment for the western companies not pricing their products so they are affordable in a developing country
The students were then required to formulate a plan to solve the IP Protection dilemma in China and post their plan on www.chinaholisticenglish.org,
The following are representative posts:
Judy Class 2
October 28th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
I always think that IP protect is far from me. But through the WORKING GIRL and the class, I am now aware that it is very important for all of us. We should protect our IP and also should protect other’s. In China we do not take it very seriously. As the example was taken by Martine Wolff, we do not steal the VCD or DVD in the shop, but we download the movie from the Internet freely. This may be a big question. There are two ways in front of us: One is free, the other is that we should pay money for the same thing. Of course, we choose the first one. It would be a long way for China to go to make everyone notice the importance of the IP protect. Everybody should enroll with the help of the government
Angelina Class 2
October 28th, 2009 at 11:51 am
Honestly speaking, most of us download songs, movies and articles on the Internet for free. Before the discussion of IP protection, we have never realized that this behavior is illegal. That is to say, many of us are lacking of concept and knowledge of IP and IP protection. We ourselves should pay enough attention to this situation because IP and IP protection is closely related to our future work and life. Firstly, we should culture our awareness of IP that we should know the things belonged to IP. Secondly, we should know well the laws about IP and IP protection in China. Last but not least, we should obey the laws and should respect others’ labor. Only in this way, the so-called laws about IP and IP protection can be considered as meaningful.
May Class 2
October 28th, 2009 at 10:53 am
In our growing, we all have been told that taking others’ things without permission is a kind of stealing behavior . But we only have the traditional concept of stealing in our mind. Few of us have the IP Concept in China. Therefore, it is a very urgent task to improve IP Concept of the Chinese people. And my suggestions are as follows. Firstly, and also the most important one, just as our Pro. Wolff mentioned, the best IP protection is through education. Only by this way, can we abandon the traditional thoughts of stealing behavior and can we improve IP Concept of the Chinese people. And also, we must put more enforcement actions into practice and make the low work more efficiently. Of course, the premise is that the Chinese government must establish a series of laws base on China’s actual conditions in every field. Indeed, IP protection develops rapidly in China, but it also does not develop well enough. To solve the problem of IP protection, we have still a long way to go!
Betty Class 3
October 28th, 2009 at 10:51 am
To be honest, I do not want to touch on this topic. As a student who does not have some outcomes need to protect, I prefer the convenience brought by piracy and illegal downloading. In China, intellectual property rights infringement, like a double-edged sword, bring us cultural and economic development, but more drawbacks and adverse impacts following. We have clearly seen that intellectual property infringement amounts to the action killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. On one hand, it brings great harm to the original master, lower their enthusiasm of creation, and lead them to be disappointed and distrust of us. In the long run, they are no longer willing to share with us and display the new results to us. On the other hand, though it has brought the imitator temporary benefits, copying the original outcomes results in our psychological reliance, and we become more and lazier to think and innovate. Of course, China should solve these problems, but it is really a long and intricate process. To change the situation fundamentally, we need to further educate and economic development. Take pirated books as an example. When the pirated books are much cheaper than the original, we always prefer to buy the pirate which may be of poor paper quality, because we can enjoy the same content paying much less money. So, for the publishers, why not throw off the excessive gorgeous packaging and reducing the price differences between the original and the pirate. For the government, establishing and improving the framework of laws and rules on copyright piracy are still real challenges, but why not try to set up more awards to reward innovations. For the public, we still need to get more knowledge of intellectual property rights, and show our respects to the person who do the creative work. Lisa Class 1 October 28th, 2009 at 10:49 am I think the key to the IP protection lies in the education. Most of Chinese people don’t realize that it is illegal to use other’s intangible goods without paying. They think the resources are for free. China has promulgated some laws about IP protection, but many people don’t notice the laws, so it is necessary to propagate the laws effectively, using some mediums, such as TV, broadcast, newspaper and so on, punishment is not the correct way. Maybe they should educate the students about the laws of IP protection when they are very young, because the children will be the next leaders of China, and the conception of IP protection is very important, if they are not aware of the IP protection, how will they release the laws of it? And how will the citizens develop the consciousness of it? That will be a very serious problem.
Jane Class 8
October 28th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Frankly, the Intellectual Property Protection in China has not been good. In my opinion, the following ways can be tried to resolve this problem.
1. Draw a clear-cut line between reward and punishment. Based on existing law, we should improve relevant provisions and regulations. Governments at all levels should set an example by their own action. We must ensure that the laws are strictly observed and enforced. Publishing houses and copy shops must be given strict supervision. Law-breakers must be punished strictly. While the advanced law-abiding individuals can be given certain incentives to set leading role for the rest.
2. Governments and medias should do more publicity. Television, Internet, newspapers, billboards can be made full use to give citizens information as much as possible to understand the importance of intellectual property protection.
3. While the most important thing we should do is to strength education. Education about intellectual property protection should be strengthened in schools at all levels, especially in universities where this phenomenon is quite serious. It is important that teachers should set examples.
4. Another key point is to develop the economy, which is the basis for intellectual property protection. If our income is high enough, we have naturally foundation to buy the legal ones. However, now it is more realistic for the majority of Chinese people to buy the piracy according to our income level. This problem can not be resolved within a short time, and we can only pin our hope on our long-term joint efforts.
CONTROL GROUP
An additional 350 post-graduate students from the same university read The Best IP Protection is Through Education, Not More Enforcement Actions, TESOL Law Journal: January 2006 Vol 1 but did not watch the movie “Working Girl” or participate in the subsequent discussion of IP protection. The students were then required to respond to the article on www.chinaholisticenglish.org,
The following are representative posts:
Jennie Class 4
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:59 pm I
don’t think Intellectual Property is a good idea.Only Intellectual Share could make the whole human improve,however,it is a long way to realize this idea say nothing to practise.Throw away this unearthly idea,in the real-life,the competition exists between the countries,the companies,and the individuals,so there must be IP appearance. But I am still in a puzzle about IP. Both people read the book in the bookstore without a pay and people copy the book in the library is a theft,then all the previous theories that we learn should pay. And who are not able to pay should not get intellect ,and how could the whole human improve?
Sofia class 17
November 21st, 2009 at 9:37 am
It is a so common phenomenon in China. When I go to buy books and videos, I absolutely have no sense to differ the pirates from the genuine. Actually, I have no idea about which is genuine and which is piratical since most books and videos are piratical in the book shops. The pirates are cheap while the genuine are expensive. The price of the genuine may be triple or fourfold of the pirates, and even more. We are surrounding in the environment of pirates. So we can get what we want cheaply and simply. I feel deeply ashamed of this. Yes, it is time to change. We should protect IPR from action not just talking.
sunny Class 4
December 1st, 2009 at 12:42 pm ·
We all know that many Chinese people have little sense about Intellectual Property (IP) protection, especially twenty years ago. And china have lost a lot benefit for that. We should strength our minds of the IP. But I cann’t agree with that one reading books in bookstore for free is a thief.I think that we can’t be able to by all the book we want to read,for it is too expensive.And it is not need too.For many books,we read for once is ok.This action even should be encouraged,and this can made people learn more knowledge from books.
David class 4
December 1st, 2009 at 4:53 pm
We all know that in China our law is not perfect like western countries. Many human right can not get protection from the law. In the Three Deer’ contaminated milk powder event the victims can not get protection from the law. Our government is more powerful than the law sometimes. But we also see the trend that our law is more and more perfect. Now many young people know that it is illegal to use pirate because the law protects Intellectual Property. But many older people do not realize the importance of Intellectual Property Protection. This is because of their education. I want to say the problem about reading books in a bookstore. In the article you think reading books in the bookstores without compensation also constitutes a theft. In fact in china no bookstore can or willing to do this. They are welcome people to read books in their bookstore. It is good for their business. This is just like a food store permit you to take a piece to have a try. Of cause it is absolutely for free. If you do not know the content in the books why should you buy them. If you do not know the taste of the food why you want buy it. I can say a joke. A man passed a food store. The owner of the food store stopped him suddenly. The owner said he should pay some money because he just smelled the food’s smell. The man was embarrassed. In that time a wisdom man stood out said I would pay for him. He just put out his money bag and make some sound to prove there were so many gold coins in the bag. The owner was very happy. When the owner put his hand to the wisdom man, he just said “I had paid for it. Because you heard the sound of my coins. You should pay for it. The price is the same as that man should pay.” I want to know whether in the U.S.A. we should pay for the smell of the food. Or else I need take a lot of coins in my wallet.
CONCLUSION
It is futile for the west to continue applying pressure for more IP prosecutions and for China to accede to this pressure. When 350 out of 350 post graduate students at one of China’s top ten universities lack the most basic appreciation of IP; it is time to redirect resources into a comprehensive educational process.
Read the article BEST IP PROTECTION IS THROUGH EDUCATION, NOT MORE ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
Levin Class 15C
March 5th, 2010 at 9:57 pm · Edit | Delete | Spam
Many chinese students has little basic law knowledge,this is very bad for development of China,with the globalization,the law is becoming more and more important.But lots of reasons should take responsibility for this horrible situation ,but i think the most reason is the failure of education,expecially the high education,we should rethink our policy of education.
Stella Class 3C
March 8th, 2010 at 9:29 pm · Edit | Delete | Spam
In my opinion, most of us know the importance of Intellectual Property Protection. But most of us don’t want to envisage plagiarism. Everyone knows that a legal copy is much more expensive than a pirated one. As students, we usually consume the cheaper one as we haven’t considered the inventors’ hard work seriously. We even don’t consider using others’ idea or things as plagiarism. As so many of us do the same thing. Sometimes we consider it reasonable. Maybe we can feel guilty to be a plagiarist as we have to protect our production. But I think the most important thing we can do now is to develop Chinese economy and enhance the education on Intellectual Property Protection Law. We should ensure that people have enough consumption capacity and know the importance of IP protection to avoid plagiarism.
Doris Class 4C
March 11th, 2010 at 10:33 pm · Edit | Delete | Spam
In my opinion, both education and enforcement actions are needed to protect intellectual property. People can be aware of the importance of IP protection through education. However, there are still some people who don’t obey rules. For those people, enforcement actions are needed.
I agree that many Chinese people lack the basic appreciation of IP. As for myself, a postgraduate, I know using pirated DVD or software is illegal. But I don’t know downloading music freely from the internet is also illegal until I read this article. I am shamed of my ignorance of laws.
I think exploring the extent of IP knowledge with students is very important and necessary. It can arouse students’ awareness of IP protection. And education through movies and discussions is very creative. It is easier for the students to accept the idea of IP protection through this way. I think not only students in Sun Yat-Sen University, but also students in all other schools should receive education on IP protection.
As we all know, IP protection is very important to encourage creation. It is very necessary for the development of the whole society. I do strongly agree with the author’s opinion that “it is time to redirect resources into a comprehensive educational process.”
Anne Class 4C
March 13th, 2010 at 2:07 pm · Edit | Delete | Spam
Actually, I’m truly concerned about the academic plagiarism in China. When I search for articles about some academic topic, I would always find out some very similar essays by different authors, in different magazines, which have some almost identical paragraphs and ideas. This is the truth! In China, the situation is, as long as you are not a famous scholar, nobody cares about whether you are copying others’ ideas. However, it’s rather disillusionary and abjective for the students chasing for academic achievements. Maybe the academic environment is one critical reason why a great part of us post-graduate students are unwilling to go ahead with the academic studies. It’s urgent to change the current situation if our country wants to make breakthrough in academic fields, but I am always confused which measures to take to change it in a short-term, and I am non-confident. As the author says, education is an important way, but it will be a long process as well.
John Class 3C
March 28th, 2010 at 2:50 pm · Edit | Delete | Spam
Plagiarism is akin to theft.
In China,To solve the problem of IP protection, still has a long way to go.
With the economical fast development, knowledge plays an important part in economic development. In many aspects, the knowledge was even playing the key function. But many people have no realized that the intellectual property rights is importance in the real life the. On the one hand, many people have no consciousness to protect this right; in fact, a person’s thought is an important performance in social value; on the other hand, Some people encroach others’ intellectual property rights, actually, This behavior is thief’s behavior, this means stolen others’ money.
As we have discussed the IP topic in the class, we think that the key point lies in the defective institution, which don’t take any definite punishment measures when people violate the IP law.
Thus, even there are enormous amounts of net administrators who have the powerful software to supervise us, we still download music, movies for free since they won’t even warn you and people around you all do this, you are not alone. Moral education is far from enough if it doesn’t go with the institution constraints.
Awareness of intellectual property protection is not strong; this is a very common phenomenon. Although China has relevant laws, little attention to be paid. Even the vast majority of people think that pirated CDs and books have no difference, as long as easy to use on the line. I agree with Mr. Martin’s view, the best solution is through education.
When it comes to the intellectual property protection, hot debate can be made. Other countries always denounce our country for piracy. In the fact, I think that everything happen must have reasons. Piracy actually takes some questions for the society. In some sense, it hampers the innovation. But we should research the deep reason for the question. We can say that intellectual property protection comes with the economic development. It is hard for a man suffered hunger. So when our life style is improved for some degree, I think the question we talk about now will not be a question.
In my consideration, the effective way to protect IP is letting citizen realize how serious the problem of plagiarism and pricy is though enforcement actions, especially education as the author claims.
Enforcement actions, of course, are necessary and some people may be threatening by punishment such as jail and penalty to get away from plagiarism and pricy. However, because of significant benefits of pricy, some are willing to take risk of penalty to grasp at money. What’s more, the present education relating to morality is cliché. In most of case, pricy stems from benefits of manufacturer as well as consumers.
I think the circumforaneous could spread the whole country in China rampantly is derived from the prosperous consumer market. A great number of consumers prefer to buy piracy and pirated CD rather than purchase authorized product whose price is higher because they can enjoy the same contents paying much less money. If consumers turn to the authorized products, there is no place for pirated products to stand. It seems that consumers could gain benefits from piracy, on the contrary, they may actually jeopardize themselves in the long term. Just make a consideration, the authorized manufacturer are suffered huge negative effect from pirated products. For example, most of Chinese companies of console game are closed down, even if some existed, run into awkward circumstance because the flooded pirated CD of console game take up majority market share. Hence, if the publishers are lack of funds, we may neither enjoy new books nor new music. It is the worst circumstance, and I hope it will not happen. As I know, many console fans begin to support authorized console game and I wish the remaining companies could go through this awkward situation.
In conclusion, in case consumers are aware of intellectual property, not only for manufacturer, but also for themselves, maybe the pirated products will withdraw from the market.
I could understand Tess’s feeling when her idea was stolen by her boss, and I was also on her side when she decided to fight for her own right. Strangely, when facing the Tess thing in the real world, what I think is totally different.
I have never took IP protection seriously before, to be frank, I will not pay special attention to it even now. The most of us were and are doing the same thing, such as downloading the movies and songs from internet freely and so on. I had never take such things as stealing until that day. What a shock! I mean, I am actually a thief, but I don’t even know it . Even a post student know little thing about IP protection, how should common people know it. In addition to, it’s hardly heard that some one who pays a lot for his such stealing. So the most thing we should take to make the IP protection important is that：
Popularizing the IP protection throughout the whole country.
Frankly speaking, most Chinese people lack of the awareness of IP protection. After watching the movie Working Girl and the discussion in the class, I got to know that the importance of IP protection. Just as what we have said, IP protection not only protects the personal wealth, but also protects the initiative of personal creation. China does fall behind in IP protection, for it does not pay much attention to it. Instead, it focuses on the growth rate of GDP, leaving many vital affairs alone, such as environment protection, social security, etc. But they overlook the fact that IP also has significant influence on economic development and it is one of the important factors in today’s knowledge economy. China should enhance the propaganda of IP protection around the whole country, especially in universities and colleges, to make people become more aware of it. And China should also ensure the enforcement of IP laws and punish the actions of IP violation. All in all, China still has a long way to go and we should start right away!
Here are my opinions for solving the problem fo the inadequate intellectual property protection. Firstly , things existed because they are in need. Perhaps we should give some lessons to the consumers and let them be aware of the fact that it is illegal to destroy the intellectual property protection. Secondly, try to cut down the price of the products with intellectual property protection，so that more people are able to have one.
I have to say that the idea of IP protection is very weak in China. This situation can be fully demonstrated by what is happening in Chinese universities. College students and teachers represent the highest-educated people in China. If they haven’t the idea of IP protection, who else will have? Unfortunately, we have to admit that even college professors may do something which violates IP rights without any hesitating.
Some people show their disrespect to IP rights because they haven’t realized that it is immoral. However, some people who have the idea of IP protection will still do the same thing in China. The reasons are complicated. But I think price is one of the most important reasons. To remain low price is very important to Chinese manufacturers, no matter in domestic market or oversea market. Therefore, IP right become an issue that can be negotiated or even ignored in business area. It is a consensus for Chinese businessmen. I think the government has noticed this situation before. But it chose to release a perfect law for IP protection which has never been carried out. It doesn’t mean that Chinese government is not able to make the law work. I think the point is that the government knows that it is not the time. Much more things should be taken into consideration before really taking some actions. To act morally is correct with no doubt. But how to reduce the bad effects brought by acting morally is also important. A lot of works have to be done. I don’t think that I am smarter and can gain more information about the problem than the government leaders.
IP protection plays an important role in modern society. More and more people realize that we should protect our own IP and also we should respect other’s IP. But IP violations remain on the increase. There are many reasons for that. Sometimes, the people who steal other’s IP are deliberate. They want to get something for nothing and gain an illicit advantage. This kind of behavior disrespects the owner’s creativity and harms the other’s interests. It is obviously illegal and immoral. However, sometimes people are not certain whether they violate others’ IP, for example, when we download a song or a film from the internet without the owners’ permissions, when we read a book in the bookstore without paying it. So they tend to slide into IP violations. In my opinion, the government should strengthen IP protection legislation and spread the knowledge of IP protection to raise the citizens’ consciousness about IP protection. Besides, the people should learn how to protect their own IP and respect others’ IP. Only in this way can the IP violations decrease gradually.