Chinese counterfeiting thrives despite crackdowns

Chinese counterfeiting thrives despite crackdowns

While China has talked up its recent progress in stamping out copyright piracy, the market for fake iPhones and bootleg DVDs still flourishes, and its trading partners say it could do better.

Late last month, the United States -- consistently critical of Beijing's failure to stop the illicit production of US brands -- issued an annual report saying piracy in the Asian giant remained at "unacceptably high levels".

Analysts say despite official crackdowns and successful prosecutions, graft and weak policing means factories continue to churn out fake goods, costing foreign and domestic firms billions of dollars in lost revenue.

"Local protectionism and government corruption are the real issue," Daniel Chow, a professor at the Ohio State University College of Law, told AFP.

"The central government is probably sincere but enforcement occurs at the local level, and local governments have a direct and indirect interest in protecting counterfeiting, which is important to the local economy."

China increases cyber attack on Netherlands

There has been substantial increase in cyber-attacks on .NL sites across Netherlands and Europe since the arrival of the Dalai Llama and NL's support for his issues.

Many national institutions across Netherlands are reporting an increase of government backed hacking attempts, Denial-of-Service attacks (DOS) and the intrusion of malicious Malware on their NL sites. This is meant to cause the maximum disruption of services and to damage the commerce and reputation of corporate and governmental institutions.

The overt political atmosphere and diplomatic relationship between China and the Netherlands has suffered rapid deterioration over the last few weeks, culminating in the expansion of covert maneuvers designed to undermine the Netherlands IT, Telecoms and Financial infrastructure.

The advice coming out of all sectors is to increase protection measures on .NL public domains, block enquiries by country, make sure your anti-virus and malware software is up to date. If you don't have anti-virus or malware protection, then now is the time to source some.

Remember to be very selective with your anti-virus and malware software providers. Many of the 'free' or 'shareware' applications are emerging as very good and smart but, you may also be signing up to a 'grey' provider, who are just as likely to infect your site as they are to protect it.

The internet and its use as a global vehicle for freedom of speech and an outlet for discourse, is being attacked by those forces that would stifle open-ness, truth and the civil rights of it's people. They cannot be allowed to expand their tyranny into this realm. Civil liberties are in peril!

The high price of that freedom, has always been and will always be, eternal vigilance. Build those Firewalls high! The enemy is at the Gates!