Respecting Copyright, Or The Lack Of
With such a title and with such a timing, you'd think this is another rant on SOPA. Nope, this is a story on how far we have yet to go to raise awareness in basic copyright concepts, at least here in Hong Kong.
It all started with this advertarticle in Apple Daily on Monday. Basically, it reported on a local startup and their app, MiniWeb, available for both iOS and Android. They claim that by using some ground-breaking technology from a Hong Kong University of Science and Technology research project, their app reduces data usage from a typical web page of 3.5MB down to 120KB, or a saving of 96.7%.
Intrigued, thinking it was some Opera Mini-beating technology, I had to try it out. To my surprise, immediately upon loading the app it does not present a URL bar like a web browser; instead, it offers several preselected "channels" with a catalog of hundreds more, from local newspapers to BusinessWeek to blogs to celeb Weibo feeds to full novels, comics and even job ads. How convenient! And all for the low price of HK$10 per month! And as a special Chinese New Year offer, if 3HK customers sign up before January 31, they can use MiniWeb for the first two months for free! Fantastic!
Basically, a Flipboard clone that charges money for other sites' entire content. Hmm...
At about the same time, my friend Daisy posted on Facebook that several bloggers already complained to her earlier on how MiniWeb is taking their stuff without permission. As we discussed on Facebook, we managed to get Benfeng Chen, the founder of the company responsible for MiniWeb, to join the discussion. The ensuring discussion resulted in over 160 comments.
Unfortunately, as we repeatedly asked Benfeng Chen on how he's getting the permission to redistribute other people's content, all he was willing to share was how the technology worked. Eventually he decided to leave the discussion while trying to settle the matter with Daisy in private. Of course Daisy's not about to do that; instead she published her findings on her blog, and is working with other copyright holders on other options, including legal.
Throughout this whole saga, we were left wondering:
- How could the HKUST, who prides themselves in being ranked 21st in the World's Top Universities in Computer Science, endorse such a project?
- How could 3HK, part of Li Ka-shing's empire that includes the venture fund Horizons Ventures, partner with these guys without even some due diligence beforehand?
- How could the local press, including Apple Daily, be so gullible?
If we were to give these three questions the benefit of doubt, the conclusion is even more worrisome: that most Hong Kong people have very weak concepts of copyright.
And that is truly sad.
(this post was originally posted on Google+)
