perhaps, but you need to also keep in mind, some of the largest IP infringers in taiwan are HUGE corporations. Let us not forget Riteck vs. Sony riteck was using Sony’s patented products, under a license agreement, but failed to pay the royalties due… Sony lost the first round when it threatened to terminate the contract and Ritek took them to the FTC. The court ruled in favor of Ritek even though they had been dumping on the market. Ritek has 3300 employees, capital of 600 Mill USD and revenue last year of 500 mill USD… no small fish…
Just think that Taiwan is known for its infringements and its manufacturers are just as willing to rip of the small guy patent holder, had many clients who held US patents, small business guys who started a business only to have the Taiwan and Chinese biz partners steal the ideas and produce the product. It is a shame.
Sensible for Taiwan maybe, but what about the small guy who sees his good idea being stolen and mass-produced? What about his right to get ahead?
If someone goes to all the trouble of writing a book then it’s only fair to reward them for their trouble if you’re going to use the book. Public schools - back to the original post - are not ‘in business’ to make money but they are an arm of a business-oriented government and they are charged with training the work force to make them competetive - it’s all about money.
They’re stealing someone else’s hard work to make money. Why does a country have a right to ‘leapfrog ahead’ on someone else’s hard work? Why can’t they just do their own bloody work, or pay someone else properly to do the work for them?
This thread is not about how expensive XP is for the small guy. It’s about nations robbing individuals. Anybody defending that might as well promote communism as well.
We have a few authors here. What are their views on not getting any royalties because Taiwan wants to leapfrog ‘ahead’ of people who do things honestly?
Fair points.
I work quite a lot in IP and see the pros and cons of those situations described. I did qualify absolving them of this strategy by saying ‘to a point’. I think now they should change their tune for many reasons and enfore more patent protection. Then one could argue lack of patent protection created more wealth in order to spend on patent protected goods down the line.
The business I work for happens to benefit from this IP ‘flexibility’.
However other businesses I know around Asia and the US also have IP questions. If Taiwan is not accepted as a nation state by almost the entire world so it is a bit rich to expect all fair play from Taiwanese business. They are also greedy mothertruckers and love money like God so what ya expect!
As for the little guy he alway’s gets squeezed in this situation. I might change my tune quickly if someone started photocopying my work!
Might have been once, but not now. Local firms suffer more than multinationals from piracy because Taiwan is often their major market. The result is less innovation and less growth within Taiwan. Taiwan should be trying to foster the growth of local IP.
If it was a public school that couldn’t afford to buy real books. I would have some sympathy for them.
The fact is that the public school (Wen Hua High School) has allocated a massive sum of money to a private school (Wegor Bilingual School) to provide a high quality ESL program. I have no doubt there is plenty of money to buy real books. The problem is that the funds go through too many sticky palms. When the funds finally get down the line to the books and teachers their is nothing left. The administrator could have just as easily taken something off the internet and no one would be the wiser. They didn’t because they are both very lazy and corrupt. Not only do they want to fill their pockets with government funds, they don’t want to do any work either.
I asked to speak to the principal about it and set up an appointment only to have my supervisor cancel it and I was fired. When I walked into the principals office, the principal was out ( until I left of course). I have tried to get the school to do the right thing. I believe that the money overrides all other concerns for the people involved.
In the end it is the students who will pay. It has become blatantly obvious to me that educating the students is a very low priority. If the children of Taiwan cannot communicate in English how will they compete with the the rest of the world when it comes time to put their education to use .
So what was the “official” reason you were fired?
Have you been able to talk to the principal yet?
Have you reported their textbook copying to anyone yet? If not, go ahead and report them. Don’t let them get away with it.
My supervisor, the liaison between Wegor Bilingual School and Wen Hua High School told me I was a troublesome teacher. That was the only reason given.
I waited to see the principle for 3 hours and was told that my appointment was canceled and the principal was out of town. I will not be attempting direct communication again.
I am in the process of making the report.
Have you contacted Hartzell about sueing for unfair dismissal?
As Wen Hua is involved in a technically illegal scheme to hire you, and is also going to be exposed as flagrantly breaking the IP laws, this could be tremendous fun. Do they really need the spotlight shining on them?
And as an american (you are, aren’t you?) you could maybe talk to the AmCham guys that are always banging on about enforcement of IP laws. Did you say that they were American text books being copied?
Of course, you need co-operation from your ex-employers to get you ARC transferred to your new job - assuming that anyone will hire a trouble-causer like you.
Perhaps talk to them first about your rights and your needs, and the path you don’t want to take but they are forcing you down. Personally I would hold out for at least a month still on the books, ie paid and legal, while you find your new gig. But I’m not greedy, and I bet you could get a lot more.
[quote]Perhaps talk to them first about your rights and your needs, and the path you don’t want to take but they are forcing you down. Personally I would hold out for at least a month still on the books, ie paid and legal, while you find your new gig. But I’m not greedy, and I bet you could get a lot more.
[/quote]
I have an open work permit so finding another gig is not a problem.
As a professional teacher and father my first priority is for the welfare of my family and then that of the students. If I thought that shining the spotlight on the school in this context, would improve the quality of education for my former students, I would do so. I don’t believe that will be the case. The school administrators obviously are more concerned with filling there pockets than educating their students. I suspect the poor education those students are getting now will only become worse the more attention this matter brings. Money is the primary motivation for all things in Taiwan, take that away and there will be nothing left.
The following message was in reply to my request for assistance from the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei.
[quote],
AmCham takes a strong interest in intellectual property protection issues in order to influence government policies, but we do not get involved in individual cases. Also, frankly we are a membership organization set up to advance the interests of our members.
So I think the best I can do for you is to refer you to the Intellectual Property Office of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The tel. number for their Information Service Dept is 2735-2668.
[/quote]
The point is that the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei is the driving force behind the new and improved copyright infringmant laws.[/quote]They only seem to care about these laws if you’re a big company and give them lots of money, this is Taiwan afterall, you don’t expect them to care about right and wrong for free ?
The point is that the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei is the driving force behind the new and improved copyright infringmant laws.[/quote]They only seem to care about these laws if you’re a big company and give them lots of money, this is Taiwan afterall, you don’t expect them to care about right and wrong for free ?[/quote]
That’s not the point at all. Amcham has no legal power in this country, but the Intellectual Property Office does. And if the publishing company is a big one, as Boomer earlier posted, it will have lawyers to follow up on this case. If you were in the U.S. and someone was ripping off some Taiwan book, would you go to the Taiwan Chamber of Commerce or to the police and the publishing company?
That’s not surprising as they’ve only got 13 people and most of them seem geared to the magazine or membership services.[/quote]
Well I am certainly not going to join.