[throwaway98121]

Ha! I work with some talented engineers at a big tech company. This topic sort of came up at a happy hour event.

Their culture is different. In the west, we think you’re really something if you invent or innovate something on your own. Their view is it doesn’t matter if you take something from someone because you still have to work to do something with the concept or technology.

I get their perspective. On one hand, yeah it sucks if you work hard or invest massive capital to innovate in some area. On the other hand, if your economy is at an advantage, others in the emerging world are left behind and they’ll always be playing catch up, paying royalties, or locked out completely.

[chapium]

>it doesn’t matter if you take something from someone because you still have to work to do something with the concept or technology.

Thats a rather convenient rationalization for poor behavior.

[coldtea]

Well, the same can be said to "I invented it, it's mine" behavior. A rather convenient rationalization for poor behavior -- in favor of the profit of the inventor (and usually not even that, the patent holder, which can easily be a patent troll or a rent-seeker) -- rather than the society at large or those that can put the invention into practice.

It's as if it's a matter of worldview, rather than some fixed idea that this is good or this is bad. It's also as if their version is closer to the "information wants to be free", "down with patents" etc spirit.

(Not that their companies do it out of altruistic ideology. But for the spirit of the culture at large, that can be said, as it is more communal and less individualistic, e.g. see Confucianism).

Then there's the "We stole foreign IP by the truckloads when we didn't have many inventions of our own to bootstrap ourselves with, but now that we're the ones inventing stuff nobody should do it anymore" rationalization...

https://foreignpolicy.com/2012/12/06/we-were-pirates-too/

[solidsnack9000]

Yeah, if you steal wheat from the farmer you still have to work to mill it, make into dough, knead it, bake it in the oven...

[throwaway98121]

A lot of ideas at home are stolen in one fashion or another. We just happen to have a legal system that allows you to reap the benefits of your innovation alone or license out and get royalties or some combination of the two, assuming you’re the first to patent it or assuming you have enough political or financial capital to pursue litigation.

Imo calling it poor behavior is subjective. If your culture doesn’t value being the first to discover or invent something like the west, then any notion of it being poor behavior falls apart.

To be clear, I’m not defending the behavior. If my invention was stolen, I’d be upset. I am, however, presenting the other side the way it was explained to me.

[xupybd]

Intellectual property is a relatively new idea. In the past you had to keep something secret or others would copy your ideas.

[sctb]

Could you please stop? Asked and answered: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18758864.

[gotocake]

When people make critical observations about how my country is run and my government, I don’t assume they’re anti-American. Why would you assume that my critique of how a relative handful of elites run a country of over a billion translates to “anti-Chinese”? I don’t trust people who conflate how governments operate, with the populace itself; they are usually trying to gain some rhetorical advantage dishonestly.

[chapium]

HN is open to dissenting opinions, and many of us have them without being anti-something.

[tjpnz]

>Don't bother, the anti-Chinese sentiment on HN is rampant and mods don't care.

The anti-Chinese Communist Party sentiment more like. And I would be worried if the mods did care.

[arcticfox]

Why would mods care? The Chinese hold some uniquely unpopular positions, I'm not sure why the mods should defend them from that. There are plenty of things Western countries get roasted on here for as well.