Can Apple break through China's Great Wall of counterfeits?
Apple may be making a lot of noise lately with its new iPhone 3G, but when it comes to fighting software pirates, Steve Jobs' company prefers to speak softly and carry a big stick - the stick, of course, being legal action like its recent lawsuit against computer maker Psystar for producing machines that can run Apple software.
Unlike other software companies that stage press conferences whenever they take on intellectual property theft, Apple prefers to swing that stick in a media vacuum. A good example is the official company statement regarding the Psystar suit, which is all of 14 words. "We take it very seriously when we believe people have stolen our intellectual property," Apple spokesperson Susan Lundgren told MacNewsWorld.
To say that Apple takes intellectual property theft seriously is a little like saying iPods are somewhat popular; the company is willing to take young bloggers to court for leaking news about future products. "It gets a reputation not though PR, but through people reporting on the activity of its legal departments," freelance writer/blogger Mike Elgan told MacNewsWorld.
However, the economic behemoth that is China could force Steve Jobs to crank up the volume because of the country's lax stance on software piracy.
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