Very well said<g>--"In his compelling book, To Steal a Book is an Elegant Offense, which examines the development of intellectual property law in Chinese civilization, William P. Alford argues that according to ancient Chinese history and culture, copying is not traditionally seen as a "bad" thing. To copy someone's work is considered a compliment. Therefore, the very idea of copyright is counterintuitive to the Chinese.
According to Alford, even though the Chinese are credited with some of the world's greatest contributions, from paper to ink, they have never been concerned with protecting the ideas that are created by putting ink to paper.
Patents, trademarks and copyrights are Western concepts. He argues that in imperial China, there was no indigenous effort to develop a significant body of intellectual property law, even after they invented printing, until Western influences introduced the concept to China at the turn of the twentieth century. Why? For the answer, we might have to turn to Confucius.
At the core of traditional Chinese culture is the connection to a shared past, and the importance of the family. Relationships between ruler and subject, father and son, and husband and wife are enduring and paramount. Connecting to the past provides insight into moral responsibility in the present."
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