In Florida? You go bowling.

Burger King will do in a pinch.

https://www.facebook.com/BurgerKingVN.FP

You are sadly misinformed. It is by no means the job of your local police to PREVENT your house from being robbed. That is YOUR job. Check with your local police. They are under no obligation to protect you at all.

As I responded above, Trade Secrets are not the responsibility of the gov't to protect. It is the sole responsibility of the company that owns it.

Leaving Patents and Copyrights aside, the answer then becomes -- get off your ass, stop whining and properly secure your corporate network.

Companies that bitch about this are just looking to externalize the costs and avoid having to pay for security themselves. I have little sympathy.

Trade secrets, such as formulas and manufacturing processes are the responsibility of the individual companies to protect, not government. Copyrights and Patents are given governmental protection thru legal prosecution because they are, by nature, disclosed to the public. They are published and the protection of secrecy is not available.

We didn't abandon a manufacturing based economy. The United States is the number one manufacturing country in the world, measured by production. What has gone away is the manufacturing JOBS. This is a result of automation as much as outsourcing, and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it. Brush up on the history of the Luddite Movement and the Industrial Revolution to understand how futile an attempt at stopping progress and efficiency by refusing to automate is.

If you aren't talking about copyright and patents, then the answer becomes -- do we value the quality process improvements in Chinese manufacturing more than the supposed "theft" of trade secrets? I'd argue the answer is "no". We gain more from the stuff we're buying from China being better quality than we lose in any lost competitiveness.

I'd also argue that the competitive companies in the U.S. are not sitting still. IP that is "stolen" is ever evolving. If a Chinese company takes Process v1.0 and uses it to improve their manufacturing, they're still behind the company who is constantly upgrading their processes and already on Process v3.0. Copying isn't innovation, and innovation is much more important economically than mass production.

Intellectual Property? Like we give a shit. Here's one fine example from U.S. history.

http://www.bigsiteofamazingfacts.com/why-did-president-thomas-jefferson-smuggle-rice-out-of-italy

During their early years, the United States freely ignored existing European patents and copyrights as we saw fit. Developing our economy took precedence over some Old World kvetching about theft of ideas.

To press China on theft of IP would require a truthful accounting of the cost. Look no further than the BSA for the depth of deception on the "cost of software piracy". There is no way China would accept valuation numbers like $200 per pirated copy of Windows 7.

It is my fervent wish that the BSA get just what they ask for -- the ability to absolutely prevent people from using their client's software without payment. Think of how many copies of Windows would be installed in China if it was *IMPOSSIBLE* to pirate. Think of a number close to zero.

There would be an utter explosion of growth in FOSS software. If Microsoft wanted to sell Windows and Office they'd have to lower the price to what the market would actually bear -- somewhere most likely around 10% of current prices.

Congress uses those inflated numbers every year to justify all sorts of bullshit. They value of bogus "IP" valuations far outweigh Chinese IP theft.

What are they counting as a "defect"?

Their FAQ lists example, but ends with "and many more".

Which leads us to the question of who set the "industry standard" at 1.0, and what did THEY define "defect" to mean? If it is a standard there should be a standard list of defect types.

You might try just RTFA.

120 posts and not ONE reference to "gin and tonic". Douglas Adams, we hardly knew ya.

An oldie, but goodie.

http://www.thecomicstrips.com/store/add_strip.php?iid=86420

A rare Dinosaurs reference. Wow. Very nice.

A clue for the people posting these Slashvertisements. The use of the word "proprietary" may get the venture capitalists knickers all moist, but it sets off all sorts of alarms when trying to sell a product to an end-user. (Not including clueless CIOs reading Gartner reports.)

"Proprietary" translated to end-user speak means "once you buy this we have you by the balls. You're locked in to buying our over-priced, exclusive consumables until you swallow your pride, admit your mistake and dump our product. With luck, that time will never come to pass as we'll be dug in deeper than a starving deer tick. Bend over and grab your ankles."

For examples, please see Oracle and Microsoft.