China is a country of 1.3 billion people, and at least a billion of them sell bootleg cds and dvds on streetcorners. 

As a champion for IP rights, this drives me crazy as I wend my way through the streets of Beijing.  “DVD!  DVD!” calls the huckster every four or five steps that I take.  I now just turn to them and say in imperious (and I’m sure, incomprehensible) English, “You’re a pirate.  A thief.  You’re a nation of thieves.  You’re a laughingstock to the world.  No one will take China seriously until its people decide to take intellectual property seriously!”

I’m sure I’m making an enormous difference.   

Here’s the weird thing:  I’m not at all sure that, aside from the thousands of World of Warcraft gold farmers, that the Chinese play games at all.  I have not seen a single person carrying a gameboy and in all of Beijing I have found exactly NO game stores!!! 

I’ve talked to some of the partners in the firm about this.  “Where are the damn gamestores?!” I demand, as I am about to finish Final Fantasy IV on my GBA and will need a new game before I go home.

Here’s what I think it is:  Perhaps game cartridges and even game dvds are harder to bootleg, not to mention the fact that you have to have the actual consoles to use them.  And in China, few people can afford the actual market prices for such things.  At any rate, it’s been frustrating.

But as it now turns out that I’m headed to Tokyo, I’m pretty confident that I’ll be able to find a game store there.  I mean, it’s Japan, the gaming nexus of the solar system!!