U.S. defeats China in crucial media trade case – China Business
www.msnbc.msn.com — The WTO has found in favour of the States in a long-standing US-China unfair trade dispute that may see Chinese having more access to American-made media, music and movies.
"may see Chinese having more access to American-made media, music and movies"
I think the exact opposite will be the case. At the moment such media is widely copyright-infringed and hosted on youku et al and baidu-affiliated servers, etc. And it is widely viewed. It is easier to view an episode of Battlestar Galactica in China, for example, than it is in the USA - in China they're freely shared and publicly viewable - in the US TV series are sometimes put on Hulu, more often put on DVD several months after initial screening. And if in Canada, the UK, or any country that isn't the US, they're more than often flat not available.
WTO enforcement opens the door to local partnering, and prosecuting cases of copyright infringement. The first stages of this have been evident for over a year, with many online video sites taking down movies and TV series for fear of running foul of this most perverse of laws. I fear the situation will get worse.
Rick wrote a great commentary on the Westernisation effects of copyright infringement somewhere, I've lost the link. It basically said a big side-effect of copyright infringement was that China gets exposed to Western ideals of law, politics, and society, that it would never have such accessible access to otherwise. I agree with this point fully, and see this case as the enforcement of royalties via the WTO, and not anything else.
The day I can't buy a pirated dvd of a movie just opening in the US is the day I say goodbye to China.
This finding by the WTO was a no-brainer. Of course China severely restricts what books, magazines, TV etc its citizens can LEGALLY enjoy. And of course many have capitalized on the restrictions to ILLEGALLY supply banned or restricted information / content. The only people not benefiting from this China-imposed system are the creators and distributors of the information, the art, or the entertainment product. Almost all of those that financially lose under this system are foreigners. Almost all of those that benefit financially are Chinese. And of course many, if not most, Chinese are simply denied access to the full range of ideas that most humans at least have access to.
Good for the WTO.