President Hu's Visit Series: The Fault of Prices
by Dan Ran
The piracy issue has become a most sensitive topic in the dialogue between China and the United States. As a Chinese citizen, I fully understand America's concern for their great loss from the piracy in China. Yet, I am no less aware of the fact that a Chinese consumer, usually after lingering in front of the shopping window displaying an original American product, reluctantly turns away from the stunning price to a pirated one.
The piracy problem would have been easily and rapidly solved if it were a simplistic issue concerning only international trade laws and regulations. However, a major factor makes it so complicated that almost no final solution can be found: the high prices of the original products that are beyond the limited purchasing power of Chinese consumers.
The Chinese government does try to be responsible. From time to time, campaigns are launched to fight against the serious piracy problems in China. Yet the consequences are, as everybody can see, that people simply withhold their appetite for a newly-released Hollywood movie, an American pop music album, or a new version of PC software. They hold their money until after a period of time, pirated products gradually and secretly find their way onto street corners and the shelves of PC shops again. During this period of time, do original products enjoy a larger market when their pirating competitors are restricted? Yes, but to a very, very small scale.
I am strongly convinced that when Chinese consumers turn to those pirated products, they know well that they are supporting an illegal business behavior, an unfavorable cause. And I believe that when a rational Chinese consumer is facing original software, or an original DVD copy of a Hollywood movie, he or she must have adequate respect for the efforts that have been devoted to the production -- the time, the sweat, the energy and the intelligence.
Yet, if buying the original products while dismissing the pirated ones is the embodiment of such respect, the painful fact is that they simply cannot afford the respect.
A pirated DVD is often ten times cheaper than an original one, the same rule can be applied to a pirated book, a pirated PC game and pirated software, and sometimes the price can be even cheaper. The satisfaction of paying respect to the rights of the creators of intellectual property inevitably pales in comparison with the practical need of saving one's budget. If an average Chinese consumer exclusively buys original software to install on his PC, there is a good chance that a Windows System will cost a third of his monthly salary, and although his new computer will be moderately equipped with necessary software, he will end up with an empty wallet for the rest of the month.
Viewing from this perspective, I can say it is not the Chinese government that is intentionally indulging piracy in the domestic market, nor the Chinese consumers that are blindly ignoring the dignity of intellectual property. The Chinese consumers, if offered a chance to speak, may well say, "It is not my fault, but the prices'."
The piracy issue has become a most sensitive topic in the dialogue between China and the United States. As a Chinese citizen, I fully understand America's concern for their great loss from the piracy in China. Yet, I am no less aware of the fact that a Chinese consumer, usually after lingering in front of the shopping window displaying an original American product, reluctantly turns away from the stunning price to a pirated one.
The piracy problem would have been easily and rapidly solved if it were a simplistic issue concerning only international trade laws and regulations. However, a major factor makes it so complicated that almost no final solution can be found: the high prices of the original products that are beyond the limited purchasing power of Chinese consumers.
The Chinese government does try to be responsible. From time to time, campaigns are launched to fight against the serious piracy problems in China. Yet the consequences are, as everybody can see, that people simply withhold their appetite for a newly-released Hollywood movie, an American pop music album, or a new version of PC software. They hold their money until after a period of time, pirated products gradually and secretly find their way onto street corners and the shelves of PC shops again. During this period of time, do original products enjoy a larger market when their pirating competitors are restricted? Yes, but to a very, very small scale.
I am strongly convinced that when Chinese consumers turn to those pirated products, they know well that they are supporting an illegal business behavior, an unfavorable cause. And I believe that when a rational Chinese consumer is facing original software, or an original DVD copy of a Hollywood movie, he or she must have adequate respect for the efforts that have been devoted to the production -- the time, the sweat, the energy and the intelligence.
Yet, if buying the original products while dismissing the pirated ones is the embodiment of such respect, the painful fact is that they simply cannot afford the respect.
A pirated DVD is often ten times cheaper than an original one, the same rule can be applied to a pirated book, a pirated PC game and pirated software, and sometimes the price can be even cheaper. The satisfaction of paying respect to the rights of the creators of intellectual property inevitably pales in comparison with the practical need of saving one's budget. If an average Chinese consumer exclusively buys original software to install on his PC, there is a good chance that a Windows System will cost a third of his monthly salary, and although his new computer will be moderately equipped with necessary software, he will end up with an empty wallet for the rest of the month.
Viewing from this perspective, I can say it is not the Chinese government that is intentionally indulging piracy in the domestic market, nor the Chinese consumers that are blindly ignoring the dignity of intellectual property. The Chinese consumers, if offered a chance to speak, may well say, "It is not my fault, but the prices'."
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