Unit 01 素材文档 下载本文

和杜邦公司的事件一样,Kellogg’s 公司成功惩罚侵权者的几率几乎为零,因为当地的法律不承认知识产权保护的概念。

Reading E Fortunately, the situation is now much improved following various rounds of negotiations within the World Trade Organization. Nonetheless, international companies must remain vigilant against violation of their intellectual property rights. There are always those who will seek to profit from someone else’s research efforts, financial investment and market goodwill. Innovation will be killed if its rewards cannot be protected by the law.

参考译文:

幸好,在经过许多轮世贸组织的谈判后,情况大为改观。然而,跨国公司必须保持警惕,以防被侵权。总有人试图从别人的研发、投资、商誉中牟利。如果成果得不到法律保护,创新就是空话。

Reading F Text 2_______________________________________________

You hear a lot about copyright and intellectual property (IP) nowadays, usually from one point of view: that of the copyright holder. That’s not an accident — there’s a lot of money to be made from

so-called “intellectual property” rights, and many people will want to convince you that intellectual property rights are necessary and good, rather than being a giant rip-off for consumers across the planet. What you’ll most likely be told is that intellectual property rights need to be protected, otherwise no one will “innovate.” Why invent something if someone else makes all the money from it and you get nothing? Key Word:

rip-off: Something that is more expensive than it should be

参考译文: 课文二

如今你经常会听到“知识产权”这个词——通常是从产权者嘴里。这不是意外,所谓“知识产权”可是能够让人挣大钱的,所以无数人想使你确信:知识产权是必需的,而不是忽悠全球消费者的大噱头。他们最有可能告诉你,知识产权应该受到保护,否则“创新”无从谈起。可为什么搞出这样一种东西,也就是其他人都从里面挣钱,而你却什么也得不到?

Reading G While this is a real problem that needs to be addressed, it’s also a limited way of looking at innovation. Innovation is a cooperative process,

a social process that builds upon the work of countless other people. It’s natural for people to innovate, and to work creatively together to find solutions to problems and challenges. Seen from this perspective, protecting IP slows down innovation, because people cannot use each other’s ideas, or even similar ideas, without paying a lot of money or risking a lawsuit.

参考译文:

虽然这是个亟待处理的问题,但它还是种对于创新的狭隘观点。创新是一个合作的过程,是一种建立在无数人努力之上的社会进程。人们很自然地会去创新,会去合作,会去创造性地解决问题。从这个角度看,保护知识产权会阻碍创新,因为人们无法利用各自的创意,甚至是相似的创意,否则就得支付一大笔钱或者面临起诉。

Reading H If you want an example, look at the IT creativity that exists in the Asian region. It is probably safe to say that a lot of coders and IT creators cut their teeth on at least some pirated software. Those people now have skills that are invaluable in the modern economy. What if they had been forced to pay the “market price” for legitimate products? They would have been priced out of learning and practising their skills. There’d be fewer people who could innovate in technology. We’d all be worse off —

except for the copyright holders!

Key Words:

coder: Someone who writes codes for computer programs cut one’s teeth (on something): To get your first experience in a particular job by doing something

参考译文:

如果要找个例子,那就看看亚洲在信息技术方面的创造力。可以说,许多程序员和工程师或多或少都使用过一些盗版软件,以此磨炼技术。这些人如今拥有的技术对现代经济社会是不可或缺的。假设他们不得不支付“市场价”来使用正版软件呢?他们肯定无力承受,从而失去学习的机会。那样的话,在技术领域能够创新的人就会更少。所有人的生活都将变得更糟糕——除了知识产权的拥有者! Reading I There’s a reason I’ve put “market price” in scare quotes. Here’s IP’s dirty little secret — IP is anti-free market. If you’ve ever read the finance pages of a newspaper, you’ll know that protectionist measures like import tariffs are considered bad for economies because they distort free market prices. But intellectual property rights distort free market prices as well, and by a lot more than things like tariffs do. Think about it: