Is Counterfeiting Crackdown Making Things Worse?
from the driving-them-underground dept
It's quite well known that, in many Asian countries, you could easily pick up cheap counterfeit goods at various stalls from street vendors. In some countries, of course, there are well known market places where all sorts of counterfeit goods can be bought. Recently, however, with a lot of pressure (usually from the US), local authorities have started to crack down on many of these sellers. Of course, that may have just made things easier for those sellers -- many of whom have realized they have a much bigger market, and much less likelihood of being caught if they just sell products online instead. It's yet another case where whoever is demanding the crackdown never bothers to think what happens next -- and how that crackdown could actually spread counterfeit goods even further. Unfortunately, the actual article here is a bit weak -- and short on details. Basically, it's all anecdotal, and doesn't delve into many of the actual questions. There's one police official claiming that they've been successful tracking down online counterfeiters, but then quotes someone else talking about how counterfeiting online is booming in Korea (again, without any actual support). It certainly could be a very interesting trend to note, but it would be nicer if there were more data to back up the assertions one way or the other.
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From the whoops we acted without thinking d
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With the internet everyone can even fake quality now.
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so what do you propose we do?
I do agree that this is a multi-front problem, and as such the PROPER response to the article is to place more pressure on foreign governments to control sellers of counterfeit material over the web who are based in their country. If the counterfeiters find a way around that, and I'm sure they will, you plug the hole in the dike another way. In the end, I believe the fight is worth the effort and it is a controllable problem (although I do agree that bad DRM isn't the solution).
My point is this, I'm sure some people on this forum wouold say digital media like music, movies, and software should be made available to anyone who wants it, and "content" isn't where the money is, it's in the sale of ads and goods (like fan t-shirts). I've sifted through this arguement ad-nauseum here and the more I read it, the more it sounds like indoctrination propaganda and less like a sound business model that will work as the NORM of business models for digital media distribution, not the EXCEPTION.
I believe it is imperative that countries all come to an agreement on a single (and universally enforceable) set of copyright and patent standards. Some countries can be more strict if they like, that's OK, but none should be less strict (than the agreed upon standards).
From a capitalist whose not quite ready for socialized digital media distribution,
-T
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Re: so what do you propose we do?
Now this statement strikes me as the most amusing. Because, you're basically saying you prefer a gov't controlled system of copyrights (which is more commonly known as socialism) rather than letting the market sort things out (known as capitalism) and then claiming that those who support the capitalist viewpoint are socialist. It doesn't add up...
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From TFA...
"Copyright infringement and piracy have improved due to daily raids on night markets," [Su Chun-hung] said. "But it is still challenging."
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Re: Re: so what do you propose we do?
You are 100% right in that my use of the term capitalist was improper, but I still believe the rest of my points are salient. When I say captialist, I usually refer to the American flavor of capitalism in the government having a large say so in the regulation of corporate entities (through taxation, regulatory bodies like the FCC, FDA, EPA, etc). In a way, I guess the US system is a far cry from a purely capitalist system so I will ammend my signature to say,
"From a supporter of the United States bastardized form of socialist capitalism who is afraid the rise of pure Laissez-faire capitalism will destroy the corporate infrastructure of most of the first world nations"
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