China has swiped all sorts of intellectual property during its fierce, fascinating and frightening vault into the future, but can it copy an entire Austrian town brick for brick? That’s the plan. Stealing is terrible, right? But is China any different than you and I, downloaders and freeloaders, except that its dreams are writ large? Information may not want to be free, but people want it to be. From “Xeroxed Village” in Spiegel:

“Residents of the Austrian mountain town of Hallstatt, population 800, are scandalized. A Chinese firm has plans to replicate the village — including its famous lake — in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, Austrian media reported this week.

Architects secretly set their sights on the picturesque town in recent months, said Mayor Alexander Scheutz on Wednesday. ‘The people are not very amused that this has happened behind their backs,’ he told German news agency DPA.

The leader of the lakeside town in the picturesque Salzkammergut region heard about the plans coincidentally in May through an Austrian economic delegation in Hong Kong where the Chinese real estate company responsible inquired about arranging a partnership between the two cities.

But a few days ago Scheutz discovered what he called an ‘indiscretion’ — the plans for the Chinese version of Hallstatt were apparently far more advanced than he’d been led to believe. ‘I’m stunned, but not outraged,’ the mayor said. He has since alerted both UNESCO and national authorities.

‘Spying’ by Chinese architects would not have been conspicuous in Hallstatt, where there are up to 800,000 visitors each year who ‘photograph everything and everyone,’ Scheutz told Austrian news agency APA.”

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The Hallstatt Bonehouse: