Should We All Pirate Olympic Merchandise?

Everyone knows China wins the gold when it comes to stealing intellectual property (IP).

* A fake Disneyland in Beijing -- walking distance from the seat of government -- entertains thousands of guests every day with STOLEN Disney characters.

* A Chinese company had an iPhone copy on the market even BEFORE APPLE shipped the original. Dozens of products, in fact, STEAL APPLE design, logo and trademarked designs -- some even combining various Apple IP into single products.

* Car companies STEAL automobile designs outright, then sell them both domestically and internationally.

* Rather than simply ripping off individual NEC products, they counterfieted the ENTIRE COMPANY.

* Chinese companies make and sell COUNTERFEIT DRUGS using the branding of international pharmacuticle companies, and sometimes these pills contain no drugs at all, other times, poison.

* Knock-offs are often considered the originals inside China, and Chinese buyers get ANGRY when they find out that, say, Apple is copying "China's" iPod or NTT DoCoMo has ripped off a "Chinese" cell phone design.

As the result of overwhelming pressure from the World Trade Organization, the European Union, the United States, Japan, Korea and others, China has recently and grudgingly made the most minimal changes to enforcement of intellectual property. Meanwhile billions of dollars are stolen from foreign companies every year in the form of purloined IP, and courts, party officials, local police and others routinely turn a blind eye.

Meanwhile, China is seriously CRACKING DOWN on counterfeit Olympic merchandise. In fact, the only real effort made by Beijing in this area is the protection of ITS OWN IP -- the symbols, logos, and designs it commissioned for the Beijing Olympics.

Why should anyone honor that? Why don't we all actively boycott the official merchandise, and make our own pirate versions of Olympic gear or deliberately buy pirated Olympic products as a protest against Chinese IP theft? Is that the right way to protest the Chinese government's sustained assault on the world's intellectual property?