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China Pirates Austrian Village 150

Posted by samzenpus from the imitation-is-the-sincerest-form-of-flattery dept.
First time accepted submitter thecoolstacks writes "Knockoff Apple Stores are one thing...but a knockoff Austrian village? That's some hardcore piracy right there, but we guess leave it China to do what it does best. From the article: 'After a year of construction and a price tag of $940 million dollars, the Chinese have successfully recreated the Austrian village of Hallstatt in its entirety over in the Southern Guangzhou Province. And let’s just say not every Austrian’s a fan of having their UNESCO heritage site ripped off. But since China is Austria’s second largest trading partner, what are you gonna do?'"
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China Pirates Austrian Village More

China Pirates Austrian Village

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  • Pirates? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Spritzer ( 950539 ) * on Friday June 22, 2012 @02:07AM (#40408269) Journal
    Seriously? Pirated? How about mimics, copies, or "builds replica of". I guess the next time I build a table for a friend based on another design I'll be a patch wearing, one-legged, parrot lover too. Ridiculous!!

    • Re:Pirates? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22, 2012 @02:13AM (#40408311)
      Clone is a good word: http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/06/05/2332224/china-secretly-clones-austrian-village [slashdot.org]

    • Re:Pirates? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by purpledinoz ( 573045 ) on Friday June 22, 2012 @02:15AM (#40408333)
      I guess Las Vegas pirated the Eiffel Tower, New York, and Venice... the copy is never is good as the original.

      • Re:Pirates? (Score:5, Informative)

        by MyFirstNameIsPaul ( 1552283 ) on Friday June 22, 2012 @03:21AM (#40408663) Journal
        And Washington state pirated a Bavarian Village. [wikipedia.org]

        • So did Georgia [wikipedia.org]. Not a bad place, but touristy, and the most redneck Bavarian village I've ever been to.

        • By pirated I assume you mean, "it has a Bavarian theme."

          If you read the wikipedia article you referenced it was a normal (struggling) American town until 1962 when a committee was formed to help revitalize the community (with theme makeover). Theme and copy are pretty distant. I wouldn't call a Greek revival house a pirated copy of the Parthenon.

      • Re:Pirates? (Score:5, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22, 2012 @09:27AM (#40410489)

        You probably found the reason for the European economical problems. Can you imagine all those tourists in Vegas that should actually be spending their money in the Eiffel tower, Venice and others? If a CD goes for 100,000$ penalty, then a single Eiffel tower with thousands of tourists every week could probably wipe out the entire European debt.

        Problem solved.

      • Oh, definitely; I'm never going to buy the original Eiffel Tower or Statue of Liberty. Stephen Sauvestre & Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi haven't received a cent of royalties in ages! Proof that pirating hurts artists!

      • Slightly off subject, I happened to be in Vegas in Jan 2002, otherwise know as about 3 months post-NY attack. At the NY-NY casino, they had a lot of banners and flags of sympathy. I always thought that was the oddest thing - showing sympathy for New York, in Vegas where no New Yorkers would see. I guess they needed to do *something*, but that was the only thing available.

        To bring back to the point, people needed the symbol of the copy, so are copies all that bad?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Is what a country can do when it has a shitload of money and pays workers nothing.

    • Re:Pirates? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by flyneye ( 84093 ) on Friday June 22, 2012 @07:15AM (#40409591) Homepage

      Yeah, I'm not sure about outrage as a response, either. Isn't the sick enticement of instant vacation to take you somewhere else, cheaply?
      Disney did this decades before China. ( I notice that not unlike China, Disney also twists propaganda into stories to indoctrinate children politically)
      Think about it a while and the concept is mirrored in everything from restaurants to Indian theme summer camps, from Las Vegas theme casinos to dude ranches.
      Someones culture is borrowed, chewed, swallowed,digested and packaged for mass consumption. So China copies a town, big deal.

      • > Disney also twists propaganda into stories to indoctrinate children politically

        I've heard this claim before a couple of times but have never seen any (direct) evidence of this ...

        Note: I haven't spent much analyzing Disney movies, but from what little I do recall this *seems* to be true; I would just love to see a full blown analysis confirming it, is all.

    • Re:Pirates? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Idbar ( 1034346 ) on Friday June 22, 2012 @08:03AM (#40409827)
      You just wait... when the Village Industry Association of America (or Austria) comes after them... it's not going to be funny.
    • Expect Hallstatt to be available at your local neighborhood Walmart in the coming weeks.

  • Already Posted to Slashdot (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    This has already been posted on the main page a good fortnight ago. The article is available here: http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/06/05/2332224/china-secretly-clones-austrian-village

  • Dupe (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DiSKiLLeR ( 17651 ) on Friday June 22, 2012 @02:10AM (#40408295) Homepage Journal

    Dupe.

    http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/06/05/2332224/china-secretly-clones-austrian-village [slashdot.org]

    To be fair, its more than a day or two. But only 2 weeks ago.

  • ...going to be more difficult. The Chinese have two alternatives.

    1. They can abduct thousands of people to populate their village or more likely

    2. They're going to user their citizens as knock off Chinese imitations of Austrians. In which case, I am booking a flight to China to see this place immediately.
    • Which Austrians do they intend to emulate? The Habsburgs? Or Adolf Schickelgrueber?

      In either case, bang goes the neighbourhood.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by clemdoc ( 624639 )
        I see no shortage of excellent candidates when I look out (of my basement window). But really, the idea could lead to the renaissance of an excellent tradition from the founders of democracy: Ostracism!

  • Villages are copyrighted? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by EdIII ( 1114411 ) on Friday June 22, 2012 @02:13AM (#40408317)

    Seriously, how do articles like this get accepted in the first place?

    China made a village in the exact style, placements, etc. of an Austrian village. Piracy? Piracy, hardcore, piracy is what China does best? What kind of baseless insult is that? Is this news, or some emotional butthurt editorial from an Austrian?

    Does that mean that large parts of China Town ripped off China? Las Vegas ripped off France with its mini Eiffel Tower?

    Get real. I can't even believe this is an article. Should not have even made it to Idle.

    • The 'China does best' is just in relation to China's well-deserved reputation as a major manufacturer of counterfeit goods and low-cost imitations of successful products. As the companies being coppied from are not Chinese, the government sees no reason to spend too much money on policing this particular crime.

    • Re:Villages are copyrighted? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Friday June 22, 2012 @03:33AM (#40408713) Homepage Journal

      Far more interesting (to me) is that they built it in just one year. We are not talking cheap high-rise blocks thrown up, there is some real skill and craftsmanship here.

      • We are not talking cheap high-rise blocks thrown up, there is some real skill and craftsmanship here.

        And you can tell that from two small pictures... how exactly? Just because it looks "authentic", doesn't mean it's not a cheap veneer over a cheap superstructure.

      • It's China so actually no, there isn't. China + 1 year = fake fake fake fake fake with awful quality behind it. It's probably 50% paper mache.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by EdIII ( 1114411 )

          Isn't China supposed to be cheap?

          $940 million dollars worth of paper mache should be whole cities.....

    • Seriously, how do articles like this get accepted in the first place?

      Second place actually. http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/06/05/2332224/china-secretly-clones-austrian-village [slashdot.org]

      This story must be REALLY good. You're clearly not following the Slashdot group think.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Polo ( 30659 ) *

      It might be fair use. I suspect any copyright on the village might have expired long ago. :)

  • China is Austria’s second largest trading pa (Score:5, Informative)

    by node159 ( 636992 ) on Friday June 22, 2012 @02:20AM (#40408367)

    "China is Austria’s second largest trading partner".

    Umm... I think you may have Austria and Australia confused. Austria is that tiny country in the middle of Europe known for the 'Sound of Music', the birth place of Hitler, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Josef Fritzl (serial incestual rapist), the alps ... but not so much for kangaroos.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by pahles ( 701275 )
      No, Austria and Australia didn't get mixed up. You don't think China could be their second largest trading partner, right after, let's say, neighbor country Germany?

      • Re:China is Austria’s second largest trading (Score:4, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22, 2012 @02:51AM (#40408525)

        Nope. Unsurprisingly, the major trade partners are mostly their immediate neighbors and other EU member states. According to the statistical office of the austrian government, the most important trading partners are (export numbers in 2011):

        1) Germany: 31.1%
        2) Italy: 7.6%
        3) United States: 5.2%
        4) Switzerland: 4.9%
        5) France: 4.1%
        6) Czech Republic: 3.9%
        7) Hungary: 3.1%
        8) UK: 3%
        9) Poland: 2.8%
        10) Russian Federation: 2.4%
        11) China: 2.4%

        That's quite a bit distant from being the second most important trade partner, so I think it's very likely that someone confused the two countries:

    • Re:China is Austria’s second largest trading (Score:4, Informative)

      by azalin ( 67640 ) on Friday June 22, 2012 @04:27AM (#40408935)
      And Red Bull, the croissant, coffee names so weird it would make even starbucks blush and a generally twisted naming scheme for food (a popular sausage is called a "Eitrige" - the ulcerous). No kangaroos though.
      According to Statistik Austria, China had an export share of 2.4% ranking eleventh. The top three would be Germany (31.1%), Italy (7.6%) and the United States 5.4%. They do import a lot from China (rank 4) but less than 5%.
      So yes, someone probably mixed those two up or didn't check the facts.
  • "What are you gonna do?"
    How about ... nothing? It's not like the Austrian town isn't still there in its entirety.

    Somewhat related - There's a golf course near where I live that re-created portions of famous golf courses from around the world, and got sued by several of them for this. And it was fucking ridiculous.
    Ref. http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl/1995_1309260/lawyers-make-final-arguments-in-tour-18-lawsuit.html [chron.com]

  • Not piracy (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    You can't copyright a city. The city is not being passed off as the "original". It is not piracy by any definition of the word. And if it were every country would be in trouble. There are 30 Eiffel Towers around the globe. The Statue of Liberty is no different. Even the Taj Mahal has been copied. Does this undermines the value of the original? I don't think so. If anything, someone who visited a copy might be more willing to travel to see what the original looks like. That said, I don't see the point of cop

  • Herp derp bigotry (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sco08y ( 615665 ) on Friday June 22, 2012 @02:37AM (#40408465)

    That's some hardcore piracy right there, but we guess leave it China to do what it does best.

    That's some writing a small child would be ashamed of, but we leave it to Slashdot editors to fail at what they fail at best.

    • Hate to be a grammar nazi, but don't you mean: "but we guess leave it Slashdot editors to what they does best"

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sco08y ( 615665 )

        Hate to be a grammar nazi, but don't you mean: "but we guess leave it Slashdot editors to what they does best"

        Arrrgh, brain hurts...

  • What a dumb ass.
  • It's the /. editors who are pirates. And dupe posting buffoons:
    http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/06/05/2332224/china-secretly-clones-austrian-village [slashdot.org]

  • You wouldn't steal a car, ... (Score:3)

    by El_Muerte_TDS ( 592157 ) on Friday June 22, 2012 @02:55AM (#40408543) Homepage

    You wouldn't steal a house, You wouldn't steal a city.

    But you're free to build one exactly like it (more or less "copy it") and use it the way you like.

  • Much like this story, then.

  • Public domain (Score:4, Insightful)

    by introcept ( 1381101 ) on Friday June 22, 2012 @03:55AM (#40408803)

    At 500+ years old, I'm fairly sure the 'village' is in the public domain

  • The REAL "pirates" here are thecoolstacks and samzenpus.

    They've taken a story already posted by Hugh Pickens and Soulskill, and they've reposted it.

  • Built by the same people who made the replica Taiwanese sites? Is this a subtle threat to intimidate the Austrians?

  • If only they did that using 3d additive printing performed by adruino/PV cells powered drones swarm that are controlled using crowd sourcing trough a cloud.

    That'd be hardcore....

  • I applaud the Chinese and I'm Austrian. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22, 2012 @05:14AM (#40409125)

    Austria is being paved over with highways, strip malls, excessive parking, soulless suburbs and soviet style housing projects at breakneck speed. Our decadent and postmodernist elites plunck down atrocities like these [wikimedia.org] (Kunsthaus Graz [wikipedia.org]) into the middle of our beautiful town centers.
    The income from tourism provides the only political motivation for some restraint. Funny how tourists aren't interested in any places or buildings that were built during the last 60 years. But even this concern is considered parochial and therefore under constant attack from the (pseudo)intellectual class. To preserve what is beautiful is disparaged as "wishing to live in a museum". A redoubled effort to build even more brutalist and grotesque structures on the other hand is alleged to bring a more "sophisticated" set of tourists.

    Great civilizations imitate and learn from the achievements of the past and others and build upon it. The modernism and postmodernism of the West on the other hand seeks to wipe the slate clean and start from scratch. The result is perpetual dilettantism.

    The Chinese are on the right track. I wish they would copy more or even build an Austrian town here in Austria.

    • Re:I applaud the Chinese and I'm Austrian. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Lazy Jones ( 8403 ) on Friday June 22, 2012 @05:32AM (#40409195) Homepage Journal

      Funny how tourists aren't interested in any places or buildings that were built during the last 60 years.

      That's wrong for Vienna (e.g. Hundertwasserhaus [wikipedia.org]) and it's probably just as wrong for Graz. The most prominent architecture was always novel and radical and just because some examples were simply not good, you cannot discredit modern architecture in general. Would we have the buildings like the Secession [wikipedia.org] if we had always stuck to preserving traditional styles? In a few decades, we'll wish we had built more buildings like the new Sofitel [flickr.com] (Jean Nouvel!). Sadly, people are more keen on preserving ugly 1950's buildings on the other side of the Wienkanal than having great modern architecture like the French for example.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        The Secession was built in 1897 and doesn't fall into the time span that i object to. 1950's buildings on the other hand do and should be flattened without exception.
        Hundertwasser opposed modernism and brutalism. The Sofitel building wouldn't be allowed in Paris itself.

        Tourists don't come because of the odd interesting architecture, but because of walkability, scale and proportion of streets, places and buildings in relation to each other, an organic integration of mixed uses that has grown over time and is

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Lumpy ( 12016 )

      It's because you elect leaders that are LOW IQ like we do in the USA. you CAN have new buildings built that match the existing design and does not ruin the feel. But that requires Architects that have talent and real skill, real money to be spent, and Project managers that have a clue.

    • That building is precisely what I like about Europe. The mixing of old traditional stuff with crazy ass modern stuff. Just casually side by side. How boring it would be if every town in Europe strictly stuck to some sort of design guide. I see buildings like this as a sort of shout saying "We're still here!", in a borderline obnoxious, yet still quite cool way.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ljw1004 ( 764174 )

      Funny how tourists aren't interested in any places or buildings that were built during the last 60 years.

      I've just come back from Poland. Warsaw Old Town was completely destroyed in the second world war; rebuilding finished in 1984 (30 years ago) and it was made a UNESCO World Heritage site, and tourists flock to it.

      (There's also Auschwitz, made a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979 some 40 years after its construction. And the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum in Cambodia. But they have visitors flocking for all the wrong reasons).

      The Bahai Temple in New Delhi, India (1986) has huge numbers of visitors. So does the L

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      Austria is being paved over with highways, strip malls, excessive parking, soulless suburbs and soviet style housing projects at breakneck speed. Our decadent and postmodernist elites plunck down atrocities like these [wikimedia.org] (Kunsthaus Graz [wikipedia.org]) into the middle of our beautiful town centers.

      Wow, that's right out of the Howard Roarke [wikipedia.org] school of architecture, the one that says "F You, I'm an artist!" to the people who have to live with the building.

    • Austria is being paved over with highways, strip malls, excessive parking, soulless suburbs and soviet style housing projects at breakneck speed.

      Quick, send in the MAFIAA! Austria is pirating New Jersey.

  • The linked site seems to easily exceed its bandwidth and the article is also quite bad.
    Here's a better one from Reuters:
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/05/china-austria-idUSL3E8H42VJ20120605 [reuters.com]

    For those who understand German or just want to see a short video of the Chinese copy of Hallstatt:
    http://www.spiegel.de/video/china-baut-oesterreichischen-ort-hallstatt-nach-video-1200461.html [spiegel.de]

  • It's the zombie like duplicate people that will really creep you out!
  • How about "Slashdot Pirates Prior Slashdot Story"

  • I looked on google maps http://goo.gl/maps/1eta [goo.gl] based on comments about the actual city name. I wasn't able to see anything special. Does anyone else have a better fix on the location?

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