China may require manufacturers to disclose software code

[Grubert]

Source: the Yomiuri newspaper as cited by Bloomberg

By Tak Kumakura

April 24 (Bloomberg) -- China will require manufacturers of digital appliances to disclose software source code as early as next month, the Yomiuri newspaper reported, without saying where it obtained the information.

Chinese officials will visit companies in Japan to check products. Products won’t be allowed to be manufactured or sold in China if the companies refuse to have their products checked, the newspaper said.

Technology companies have been asking China not to implement such a requirement because their technology may be stolen. China cites the need to prevent software viruses as the reason for the introduction of the system, the report said.

China informed Japan and the U.S. of a plan to introduce the system by the end of this month, the report said.

[Kyo28]

As if there isn't enough piracy in China already, now even the government is going to facilitate it.

I wonder if such rules wouldn't be against international copy right laws. Can a government force a company that has a legal patent on certain intellectual property (in this case: software) to divulge that information?

I hope other countries won't take this laying down and will fight this.

This reminds me of the issue a few years back, where Chinese officials 'demonized' Japanese products and incited people to go in the streets to protest and stop buying Japanese products such as Sony, Panasonic, etc; all because of a dispute regarding history books used in Japanese schools. Not only did one thing have nothing to do with the other, they were hurting their own economy as a lot of said products were partly manufactured in China.

[talak]

China going against international copyright laws again,the will try any way that they can get round it.

Its a case of, lets get there codes and then we can produce cheap knock-offs of the systems. Wonderful for the economy.

[OrlandoEastwood]

So does that mean I could get a knock off "BLUE"-RAY (LOL) Player for $20?

[AikonEnt]

Originally Posted by OrlandoEastwood

So does that mean I could get a knock off "BLUE"-RAY (LOL) Player for $20?

If it's multi-region I'll buy it

[Jeff Kleist]

As if there isn't enough piracy in China already, now even the government is going to facilitate it.

The Chinese government has enabled piracy there for years, only making cursory, symbolic busts. The Chinese triads, the same ones that finance certain Blu-related software packages, use bootlegs to launder, and double their money from much more serious crimes like drugs, arms dealing, prostitution, extortion etc.

The timing of this is not a coincidence with the introduction of CBHD. They know that the BDA and the CEs will never let their people near the delicate pieces of Blu-ray, specifically because they will make it back to a certain company within a week, and because Chinese companies will start making unlicensed players with impunity. Therefore, "real" Blu-ray players willl not be sold on the mainland, and the government's new format (third time's the charm for a proprietary video format) will have a chance to take over.

In reality, the Chinese public will do what they've always done, go for bootlegs of whatever the most popular format is. Personally I expect 720p AVCHD on a DVD-9 capable players to become the norm there for the common man. The best anti-piracy tool they have is the fact that the Chinese own this lock stock and barrel. Screw the government out of royalties and you're a literal dead man, which is why they'll stick to the AVC discs they've been cranking out

WB has pledged their support to the format, but it probably begins and ends with how easily they can repurpose their HD DVD stuff (the Shinco player is essentially a Toshiba HDA3 by all accounts, sans HD DVD playback, and CBHD purchased the physical disc format from Toshiba, and their "AVS" codec is changed just enough from foreign tech like MPEG-4 that they're pretty sure they can avoid paying royalties.

I wonder if such rules wouldn't be against international copy right laws. Can a government force a company that has a legal patent on certain intellectual property (in this case: software) to divulge that information?

Sure. The government of any country regulates what can be sold there, and the conditions under which that can happen. It's up to the manufacturer to decide whether those conditions are tolerable or not.

[Grubert]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Sure. The government of any country regulates what can be sold there, and the conditions under which that can happen. It's up to the manufacturer to decide whether those conditions are tolerable or not.

Not quite. When China joined the World Trade Organization, it committed to uphold the Principles of the trading system, which I'm pretty sure this new Chinese legislation runs afoul of. So I foresee a big WTO dispute coming up.

[dialog_gvf]

I would have thought in the current economic conditions the Chinese wouldn't want to drive foreign CE manufacturing out of the country.

Seems like an immensely stupid move.

[Clark Kent]

The Chinese government has unfortunately endorsed this de facto intellectual property theft as a way to grow their economy and avoid spending their own money on research and development. This applies to many industries and greatly affects the more developed countries of the world, particularly the U.S. and Japan.

[mugupo]

Chinese Government is against piracy, but many vendor able to sell them in street or store without worry because they bribe the government official.