New US law to hit manufacturers where it hurts the most

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New US law to hit manufacturers where it hurts the most

Published: 25/01/2012 at 08:40 AM
Newspaper section: Business

Law enforcers from 39 US states and territories have teamed up against the use of illegal IT by exporters. The result could be more challenges to illegal made-in-Thailand IT products exported to the United States under US unfair competition laws this year.

The US state governments have recognised that the use of illegal IT may give an unfair advantage to companies, adversely affecting competition. They are beginning to put the law to work to address this anti-competitive behaviour of exporters to the US including those from Thailand.

Just a few months ago, Washington and Louisiana states enacted unfair-competition laws to level the playing field among exporters to the US by eliminating unfair cost advantages arising from the use of unlicensed software and hardware.

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svenviking
Post : 77
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Discussion 3 : 27/01/2012 at 07:15 AM3
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The debacle with Toyota in the US springs to mind. A company shamed and fined for something it didn't do just to strengthen the US car industry . We will see plenty of this kind of behavior in the future whenever the US companies feel the need to use the US congress to improve the competiveness of their goods.
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davidh
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Discussion 2 : 25/01/2012 at 11:08 AM2
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So what's new here? The article is very non specific.

Most PCs are sold in Thailand without an operating system e.g Windows and anything shipped to the U.S with unlicensed software of any kind can be seized at the Border under the current U.S copywrite regulations and that also includes firmware, Processors and support microchips copywrited by U.S designers.

One is tempted to wonder if it's more about U.S protectionism preventing non U.S Businesses of building the interconnects to Processors, Operating Systems and Applications.

It also seemed significant that during today's State of the Union address when President Obama started talking about IP violations that China CCTV24 abruptly pulled the plug!

Fortunately, Thailand is unlikely to be much affected by all this. The U.S can be relied on to give them a good smack whenever it gets out of line!
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drake
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Discussion 1 : 25/01/2012 at 05:16 AM1
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"unfair cost advantages arising from the use of unlicensed software and hardware."
1)
Unlicensed HARDWARE ?
As if there's someone with silicon foundry capable of creating copies of things like processor, memory, & bridge chipset at profitable margin.

2)
A licensed copy of
Windows - $100
MS Office - $120
Pagemaker - $950
AutoCAD - $4,000
Solidwork - $6,000
Cadence OrCAD - $2,500 base, $10,000+ advance.

Even with discount most small companies can't afford it and that's anti-competitiveness.
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New US law to hit manufacturers where it hurts the most | Bangkok Post: business