Computer utilization and intellectual property in China and the United States

Computing in Foreign Countries

Comparing Computer Utilization in China and the United States

The two dominant economic, manufacturing and military superpowers differ drastically in their approaches to computer utilization on both a public and private basis. While the United States has a rapidly growing set of intellectual property laws on the use of the computing technologies that seek to protect individual liberties, China is relying more on a militaristic approach to censorship that is rationalized by citing western pornography and moral decline as the reasons to restrict Web access (Rayburn, Conrad, 2004). China also has taken a very aggressive stance on defining their own computing standards, most notably in the areas of enterprise software including ERP systems, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems, which are all critical for the development of global businesses in their country (Sprigman, 2003). China seeks to define the growth trajectory of computer utilization forms a concerted, aggressive growth strategy where the entire nation benefits while the United States continues to have a much more organic, free-form development of computing technology adoption that more closely aligned with individual business strategies. The U.S.,.-defined standards for computing are more oriented towards market adoption and growth, and less for censoring citizens' rights (Sprigman, 2003). This paper analyzes the differing areas of copyrights and intellectual property, enterprise software adoption, and personal computer usage. As each of these nations have radically different approaches to defining personal freedom, their respective uses of technologies also varies markedly as this analysis will show.

Copyrights and Intellectual Property

Based on different legal systems and theories of law as they apply to both individuals and corporations, the most significant factor in explaining the differences between China and the U.S. is their approach to defining copyrights and intellectual property (Suttmeier, 2005). On this point alone the recent conflicts between Google and the People's Republic of China illustrate how divisive these differences in copyrights and intellectual property can become. Chain today is saying, as of February, 2010, that Google is serving as a platform for pornography distribution in their nation. Yet China has one of the most aggressive and punitive programs of any nation to shut down pornography; and the purpose of these efforts are so they have a reason to regulate and censor the global Internet. In the name of censorship of objectionable materials the Chinese government blocks inbound Web traffic from companies who pose a threat to their government and also block companies who clearly stat they support ideological change (Sprigman, 2003). Internet access has become an indicator of the relative levels of freedom and valuing of democracy a nation is attempting to accomplish (Suttmeier, 2005). As a result China and the U.S. have drastically different approaches to the managing of information systems and their supporting technologies.

Personal Computer Usage

Where people will spend more for an Internet connection than they will for their monthly rent (Quan, Hu, Wang, 2005), China's personal computer users are more focused on how to gain insights from the outside world than on using PCs purely for office automation tasks. The PC usage rates in China continue to grow at a faster rate than the U.S. As the latter nation has a saturation rate at a higher level. Both nations have an abundance of low-end NetBook and laptop systems available, and Internet access is becoming more prevalent. Of the two nations, Chinese citizens are more willing to pay a higher proportion of their incomes to get access to computing resources, even more than their rents or mortgage payments.