[woolvalley]

For a more localized version, the entire existence of Hollywood happened because the industry wanted to avoid Edison's patent enforcement, and it was hard to enforce lawsuits on the other side of the country.

For me it's not really the IP theft, and more the lack of an equal playing field for foreign companies in China. If foreign companies can't get the same effective rights as local ones do, then those other countries should give the same restrictions to chinese companies in their locales.

[gok]

This is also something of a myth. There was a trust (that Edison was part of) which monopolized film production, but by the time Hollywood was ramping up their patents had already expired. They were really enforcing their monopoly through price and supply controls. The cartel was ultimately broken by antitrust litigation, not IP piracy.