Push Up the Plagiarism: It's a Photo, No ... It's a Painting

Joel Martinsen of the great site about Chinese media, advertising, urban life and many more fascinating subjects, Danwei.org, has a great blog about 'Painted plagiarism of push-up photograph' read here.

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China's NCA versus Microsoft: Pot Calling the Kettle Black?

Last week Mr Yan Xiaohong, vice-president of the National Copyright Administration of the People's Republic of China (NCA Chinese) criticised Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage software, according to an AFP article. Mr Yan's has a problem that this system which turns computer desktops black every hour if the installed Windows XP operating system fails an authenticity validation test: "Measures for safeguarding (intellectual property) rights also need to be appropriate. We've paid great attention to the 'black-out' issue."

According to the AFP Mr Yan also said: "The company adopted unified prices in the past without considering the income gap between developed and developing countries[.]" Read the AFP article here.

Who is to blame here?

• Microsoft because of the quote by Mr Bill Gates in Fortune magazine which hounds him ever since about that Microsoft did not enforce its copyright in China to secure market share: "They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade," read more here, and now that they do, they allegedly enforce in a consumer unfriendly way.
• China's NCA, because so far they seem to be unable to effectively enforce Microsoft's copyright and this is a case of best defense is offence and Microsoft is only securing that users "are getting the experience they expect"?
• Or both Microsoft and China's NCA?
• Nobody?

What do you think?

UPDATE 1:

Mr Joel Martinsen of Danwei.org has a great article 'Kong Yiji and the question of software piracy' about it here.

UPDATE 2:

The Haidian District People's Court in Beijing lodged a case by Mr Liu against Microsoft because of its Windows Genuine Advantage system. Cheng Zhiliang wrote an article about it for the Shanghai Daily named: 'Microsoft sued for anti-piracy measures', read it here.

UPDATE 3:

Is Microsoft budging because of the pressure? Mu Xuequan of Chinaview.cn via Xinhua wrote 'Microsoft to take more flexible pricing strategy in China' read here.

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Cartoon Sanmao Will Be Adapted Into Real Life Actors Film

Joel Martinsen of Danwei has a fine interview with the right holder of the copyright of cartoon hero Sanmao (三毛) which means literally three hairs, characteristic for the cartoon protagonist. The article implicitly illustrates some of the aspects of a copyright:

The right holder chose to give his permission to adapt the cartoon in a movie. In this case he insisted that it is going to be a real life actors film and that it would be a co-production with a Chinese production company. (Article 10 (14) Copyright Law: the right of adaptation, that is, the right to change a work to create a new work of originality);

The right holder authorised the filmmakers to make some changes, not too much, because the character of Sanmao may not be damaged. (Article 10 (3) Copyright Law: The right of alteration, that is, the right to alter or authorize others to alter one's work);

The right holder protects the Chinese character Sanmao, based on his right of integrity. (Article 10 (4) Copyright Law: the right of integrity, that is, the right to protect one's work against distortion and mutilation).

Read the Danwei interview here.

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