It talks about how American leaders supported piracy of European technology for centuries but once America became a world leader in technology, it switched to being an advocate of international laws regulating intellectual property. It goes on to say that "Nearly every branch of manufacture in the US was founded upon imported skill and machinery which was smuggled in because there were strict prohibitions in Europe"

The author suggests that the way leaders of developing nations should handle piracy issue today is by paying lip service to IP agreements and occasionally raid a warehouse full of pirated CDs or prosecute a high-profile pirate. That's because US history teaches us that symbolic acts and talk of principles, accompanied by lax enforcement, are a winning combination.

An interesting piracy fact is that the value of illegal software in the US is 6496 million dollars while that in China is 3822.5 million dollars. The figure in India is 367.4 million dollars. This is very strange considering that it's generally India and China that get all the blame for piracy. Even the UK has more than 4 times more illegal software than India. The UK figure is 1600.6 million dollars.

The author suggests that we have to learn to live with piracy and yet the way to the top is only through creating your own IP and not by copying. An interesting read, with lessons for both the developing as well as the developed world.

Ref:

1. How to stop worrying and learn to live with piracy (requires free registration)
2. Trade Secrets
3. Global Piracy Study
4. Trade Secrets Intellectual Piracy and the Origins of American Industrial Power

Related:

1. Pirates of the IT world: The Curse of the Black Bazaar

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