"As schools become more global in their locations ... their culture of openness and international collaboration makes them increasingly vulnerable to theft of research conducted for the government and industry."
Excuse me, but isn't this obvious?
"Foreign countries “can never become competitive by stealing,” [University of Maryland President Wallace Loh] said. ..."
Maybe I'm too naive, but I would think virtually any foreign company can become very competitive by stealing.
"... In another, an Asian graduate student arranged for researchers back home to visit an American university lab and take unauthorized photos of equipment so they could reconstruct it, the report said."
...which lead to Kim Jong Un and Dennis Rodman making very delicious mini-cupcakes from their recontructed Easy-Bake Oven (TM). Seriously? Where is Bruce Schneier to talk about "Security Theater"?
"A foreign scientist’s military background or purpose isn’t always apparent. ..."
I had to stop reading the article at this point...
Err... innovations in Bieber face swaps? Sorry, you lost me
EDIT: OK different link now... sure there is a Wikipedia article titled "Technological and industrial history of the United States". But that doesn't change the fact that, yes, the country's early technological growth was based heavily on the same sort of "piracy" that people love to hate modern Asia for.
Obviously a ton of great stuff has been created in the U.S. since then. All I'm saying is that if we're going to list countries for whom intellectual property theft has proven profitable, the U.S. belongs on that list just as sure as anyone else.
My objection is to the use of the word "heavily." Your article uses the example of stealing mill technology. The Wikipedia article gives an accounting of other areas of technology that were home built, even in the early days of the republic. The US was technologically self-sufficient along many dimensions, from agriculture to transportation. It had certain gaps in manufacturing technology because of the nature of British mercantilism (raw materials were exported to Britain and reimported as finished goods into America, which suppressed the development of native manufacturing).
In any case, stealing technology has been a much more fundamental part of the recent prosperity of China and India. Their societies are almost wholly dependent on Western technology. In comparison, the U.S. was always a prosperous country, even during colonial times.
The USA was prosperous during colonial times because it imported talent directly from England.
Yes, the USA has a long history of innovation (for instance Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod, and the Franklin Stove.
But if you read up on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution you'll find that major technological progress began in England, and the USA was mostly an innovative footnote until surprisingly late. The USA did much more important than exporting of major technology for decades.
You're overstating the importance of industry at the time. American prosperity was based on agriculture at the time, for the vast majority of people. The US invented the cotton gin around the revolution, which was a game changer in a predominantly agricultural society and gave the country a lighweight exportable textile. Around then, it was also participating in the development of the steam engine and the steam boat. Even when the original invention originated in England or Scottland, the US was improving on the designs (e.g. iron plows cast in one piece).
My point isn't that the US sprung fully formed like some technological Athena. My point is that the US had a culture of innovating even when it copied the basic technology. This was by necessity, because perfect copying was not possible at the time. In comparisom, the Chinese and Indians have been so utterly dependent on wholesale copying that there is little innovation out of those societies. What need is there for a Chinese OS when you can just copy Windows, or Indian drug formulas when you can just use American formulas.
First of all, the US advantage in agriculture was mostly due to resources such as the availability of large amounts of fertile land/person. Yes, the cotton gin was important. Yes a lot of improvements came from the USA. But this is no different than successful technology transfer anywhere else. People who have problems, find clever solutions to them. This becomes the foundation of long-term growth in innovations.
Secondly, you are massively underestimating Asian innovation. Almost all global manufacturing of key technologies, such as RAM, has almost entirely moved to Asia. Moore's Law has not slowed for those technology. There is lots of innovation going on in those fields, and it is all Asian at this point. Mostly covered by trade secrets rather than US patents, but it is still real and your computer wouldn't run without it.
Did you hear that Samsung recently got criticized for deciding to budget more on marketing than R&D? They did. When was the last time that you saw a US company criticized for valuing marketing above R&D? What does that say about the innovation culture in South Korea vs the USA? (Yes, innovation in China and India are behind South Korea - but 20 years ago nobody thought of South Korea as more than a bunch of copycats. How will they remember their history in 200 years?)
Thirdly you're not acknowledging the fact that the USA historically had a deserved reputation for not respecting intellectual property. For example Charles Dickens had more than a few choice words about how freely his works were pirated verbatim in the USA. Key technologies were taken lock, stock and barrel without compensation - exactly what Americans today complain about Asian countries doing.
In short there are good parallels between how the USA behaved and was seen 200 years ago, and what's going on today in Asia.
I don't think that it overstates the case. The key technologies behind the industrial revolution (from the steam engine onwards) were invented in England, then imported to the USA, which improved them further.
If you trace backwards, part of the reason why England had the economic foundation for that was a major importation of artisans from the Netherlands after William of Orange became king of England.
And the Netherlands gained the foundations for its wealth from skills that the Sephardic Jews took to the Netherlands as they fled the growing religious intolerance in Spain as the Inquisition got under its way.
And so for hundreds of years each top world power has seen the major foundations of its prosperity be based on knowledge and skills gained from the previous one. Is it any surprise that the cycle would repeat again now that the USA is the top world power? It may feel like history inevitably leads to now, but there is no reason to believe that the economic dominance of the USA will last longer than previous world empires.
"The migration of Byzantine scholars and other émigrés from southern Italy and Byzantium during the decline of the Byzantine Empire (1203–1453) and mainly after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 until the 16th century, is considered by some scholars as key to the revival of Greek and Roman studies and subsequently in the development of the Renaissance humanism and science."
Could you please rephrase your point using less sarcasm? I don't really understand what this comment is saying. I don't know how to make this request without sounding sarcastic myself, but I'm being sincere.
Racist BS! The article starts by a paragraph impying Iranian students are spies,etc. However, the number of Iranian students coming to US has been minimized thanks to ongoing Israeli lobby to very few per year. Then it moves to Chinese students and on and on...this crap has no place oh HN
The front desk at my university's library was lending pen drives to people who needed to get scans off the copy machines (which were not connected to the network, for some reason). Abandoned pen drives were put into a drawer and recycled in this way.
The pen drive I was given was unusually large and had the name of a Chinese university on it. When I plugged it into my MacBook, I was asked to choose a layout for the new keyboard. It turns out that there are pen drives that actually contain two USB devices, a mass storage drive and a keyboard, and the keyboard part can be programmed to type rogue commands at night (I guess Windows doesn't alert you that loudly when a keyboard is connected, so it's more likely to go unnoticed).
I tried to get someone to help investigate this possible rogue device, but nobody cared. I wonder if it was an espionage tool.
If this is true, take one or two of them. This would be great fun to investigate further. Consider taking photos of the inside if you can disassemble it without breaking it.
Find a few computer science student, get them in a room and ask them to evaluate the device.
If this fails, find a highly ranked, trusted user on hacker news, and send it to them if they are willing.
I don't know if I should believe you, but anyway, this happened several months ago. I tried getting a computer security professor involved, but nothing came of it. I told the library to quarantine the drive when I handed it back, but who knows what they did.
22 comments
[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 32.9 ms ] threadExcuse me, but isn't this obvious?
"Foreign countries “can never become competitive by stealing,” [University of Maryland President Wallace Loh] said. ..."
Maybe I'm too naive, but I would think virtually any foreign company can become very competitive by stealing.
"... In another, an Asian graduate student arranged for researchers back home to visit an American university lab and take unauthorized photos of equipment so they could reconstruct it, the report said."
...which lead to Kim Jong Un and Dennis Rodman making very delicious mini-cupcakes from their recontructed Easy-Bake Oven (TM). Seriously? Where is Bruce Schneier to talk about "Security Theater"?
"A foreign scientist’s military background or purpose isn’t always apparent. ..."
I had to stop reading the article at this point...
It worked for China, India, and Korea.
EDIT: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-01/piracy-and-fraud-pr...
Your article overstates the case: even early on the US innovated in many areas (though textiles was not one of those areas): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_and_industrial_hi...
EDIT: OK different link now... sure there is a Wikipedia article titled "Technological and industrial history of the United States". But that doesn't change the fact that, yes, the country's early technological growth was based heavily on the same sort of "piracy" that people love to hate modern Asia for.
Obviously a ton of great stuff has been created in the U.S. since then. All I'm saying is that if we're going to list countries for whom intellectual property theft has proven profitable, the U.S. belongs on that list just as sure as anyone else.
In any case, stealing technology has been a much more fundamental part of the recent prosperity of China and India. Their societies are almost wholly dependent on Western technology. In comparison, the U.S. was always a prosperous country, even during colonial times.
Yes, the USA has a long history of innovation (for instance Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod, and the Franklin Stove.
But if you read up on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution you'll find that major technological progress began in England, and the USA was mostly an innovative footnote until surprisingly late. The USA did much more important than exporting of major technology for decades.
My point isn't that the US sprung fully formed like some technological Athena. My point is that the US had a culture of innovating even when it copied the basic technology. This was by necessity, because perfect copying was not possible at the time. In comparisom, the Chinese and Indians have been so utterly dependent on wholesale copying that there is little innovation out of those societies. What need is there for a Chinese OS when you can just copy Windows, or Indian drug formulas when you can just use American formulas.
Secondly, you are massively underestimating Asian innovation. Almost all global manufacturing of key technologies, such as RAM, has almost entirely moved to Asia. Moore's Law has not slowed for those technology. There is lots of innovation going on in those fields, and it is all Asian at this point. Mostly covered by trade secrets rather than US patents, but it is still real and your computer wouldn't run without it.
Did you hear that Samsung recently got criticized for deciding to budget more on marketing than R&D? They did. When was the last time that you saw a US company criticized for valuing marketing above R&D? What does that say about the innovation culture in South Korea vs the USA? (Yes, innovation in China and India are behind South Korea - but 20 years ago nobody thought of South Korea as more than a bunch of copycats. How will they remember their history in 200 years?)
Thirdly you're not acknowledging the fact that the USA historically had a deserved reputation for not respecting intellectual property. For example Charles Dickens had more than a few choice words about how freely his works were pirated verbatim in the USA. Key technologies were taken lock, stock and barrel without compensation - exactly what Americans today complain about Asian countries doing.
In short there are good parallels between how the USA behaved and was seen 200 years ago, and what's going on today in Asia.
If you trace backwards, part of the reason why England had the economic foundation for that was a major importation of artisans from the Netherlands after William of Orange became king of England.
And the Netherlands gained the foundations for its wealth from skills that the Sephardic Jews took to the Netherlands as they fled the growing religious intolerance in Spain as the Inquisition got under its way.
And so for hundreds of years each top world power has seen the major foundations of its prosperity be based on knowledge and skills gained from the previous one. Is it any surprise that the cycle would repeat again now that the USA is the top world power? It may feel like history inevitably leads to now, but there is no reason to believe that the economic dominance of the USA will last longer than previous world empires.
--https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_scholars_in_the_Renaissa...
The pen drive I was given was unusually large and had the name of a Chinese university on it. When I plugged it into my MacBook, I was asked to choose a layout for the new keyboard. It turns out that there are pen drives that actually contain two USB devices, a mass storage drive and a keyboard, and the keyboard part can be programmed to type rogue commands at night (I guess Windows doesn't alert you that loudly when a keyboard is connected, so it's more likely to go unnoticed).
I tried to get someone to help investigate this possible rogue device, but nobody cared. I wonder if it was an espionage tool.