Piracy Problems in Hong Kong

Discussion

From the perspective of copyright owners or western intellectual property right (IPR) regimes, like the USA, piracy is an act of usurping copyright owners' product of hardship and neglecting their effort in inventing knowledge. It is an immoral act that incurs economic loss to the copyright owners. It is therefore the users of pirated material to be blamed and copyright owners are the victims. This perspective, or the perspective of the North, represents only one side of the coin. Examined from another angle, an angle from the Third World or the South, piracy will tell a completely different story.

From the viewpoint of the Third World, patents or the broader label of IP protection are always used by IPR regimes as instruments of conquest or recolonization in the digital age. The knowledge that is claimed to have been 'invented' and hence 'patented' and converted to 'intellectual property' by IPR regimes is very often an existing innovation in indigenous knowledge systems of the Third World. Prior art or prior use of this 'invention' in other countries is systematically ignored in IPR regimes, such as the USA. According to US laws on patents and monopolies, if somebody invents something that already exists elsewhere and he or she does not know the existence in good faith, he or she can still claim to have invented something and be given a patent in the States. Shiva criticizes this legal system that aimed at preventing intellectual piracy is itself legitimizing piracy. IPR regimes' claim to invention and the reward given to invention are simply cloaks for their attempts to control over the global market (Shiva, 2001).

Shiva's analysis highlights the fact that the issue of piracy is not simply one of "right" versus "wrong" or "economic loss suffered by the copyright owners" versus "economic gain enjoyed by pirated work users", but also of power and politics. One day when the balance of power of the international political arena shifts, for instance it becomes more balanced between the North and the South, or between IPR regimes and IP users, piracy may have a new definition.