Who Worries About Counterfeiters?

I would love to hear the comment of a corporate officer from ROLEX™ on this issue.

I have reported this to administrators as ethical ignorance.

I am concerned that this is the kind of thinking that some employee is being paid to do, it reflects bad on the hiring organization.

However I will use this for my MBA critical thinking class as an example of "NOT" Milo

Hello Milo. Good to hear from you again.

Ethical ignorance, an excellent phrase for the premise of the blog. The whole thing just rubs my fur the wrong way. "Fashion design houses are just rip-offs anyway..." Huh?

Competition is a great motivator; it drives manufacturers of everything (from hamburger sandwiches to fashion items to wristwatches) to improve and develop. Reverse engineering anything is simple theft. I like to think most people see it the same as you and I do... (remove rose colored glasses for a moment) <sigh>.

You clearly identified the premise of note: The original design is just a ripoff? And so stealing it is just fine? Original designers should not be paid for their work? Sheesh. Thanks for the follow up.

Milo

Why then, aren't your precious original fashion designs copyrighted?

They are, but still able to be counterfeited. And because they are precious, they are being counterfeited, and Arg! Pirated too.

Milo

I guess we have a clue which anonymous coward wrote this blog entry :D

Would you sign a piece advocating Trademark infringement?

If it's not something that affects our health and safety, what difference does it make?

I certainly affects the safety of our intellectual property and subsequently our material property. That can make a lot of difference.

Thats okay, the new manufacturers, investors, shareholders etc in the new 'imitation' product will make money. They deserve that money too. There is an opportunity to improve branding methods, and to improve the control of products once they have been produced.

I hope this is a devil's advocate type question. Because it does affect health and safety, once the criminal infrastructure has been set up the business model may be expanded into other sorts of counterfeiting such as perfumes, drugs (fake adrenaline or malaria prophylaxis anyone?), electronics components and so on. The techniques being practised here are packaging counterfeiting, once the packaging looks legitimate down to the holograms the stuff finds its way into the official system. Modern buying techniques make that easy. Make no mistake, people die. Oh and they do money too.

Try and remember Starbucks does not sell coffee, but Status. Likewise any company in the world does not sell only a product, but the concept behind it, you don't buy designer clothes because of the quality (let's be honest here) you do it because you love the concept, you feel identified with it and want other to identify you with it. So if you want to pay "a few" extra bucks for any given concept you like and you can afford it, by all means go ahead; if you decide to cheat and buy the copy that will make you a big hypocrite, you want to be identified with something you are not willing to pay for. By the way, it worries me the way we use "reason" to try and make our bad practices seem right, just because everyone does something that doesn´t make it right

The way this is presented on CR4 doesn't represent it as a joke.

"Fashion design houses are just rip-offs anyway.."

The fashion designers I know work at their art, same as others work, and deserve to be paid.

People make sweatshirts all the time of fine quality that are bought and sold with no fashionable label for much less than one decorated some way or another.

It is for good reason that identity theft is a crime.

My Fake Boeing is As Good, but Cheaper than A real Boeing? Trust your life to a fake, and see how happy you are about it.

The phrase, "deserve to be paid", is not really germane, in this context, is it? Someone deserves to be paid if they produce a product that is in demand, and they have the infrastructure to deliver it at a price that customers will pay.. That infrastructure includes legal rights to the process (absent in this case), protection of employees from overly hazardous or dangerous conditions, and probably many others.

My point is, most of us do not get paid for working our art, we get paid for producing knowledge or product at a competitive price, then selling it.