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Business as usual for Beijing copyright pirates during Olympics

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by CometsWin, Aug 17, 2008.

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  1. CometsWin

    CometsWin Breaker Breaker One Nine

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    It makes you wonder how the Chinese government can control the press and can stop protests cold but they can't stop this right out in the open.


    Business as usual for Beijing copyright pirates during Olympics by Dan Martin
    Sun Aug 17, 2:13 AM ET
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080817/bs_afp/oly2008chinacopyright_080817061336


    China has muffled dissidents and thinned out its notorious traffic for the Beijing Olympics, but its brazen peddlers of counterfeit goods are proving tougher to bring to heel.

    Despite a half-hearted crackdown meant to curb embarrassing copyright theft during the Games, sellers of China's vast array of counterfeit goods say they are ringing up bumper sales to bargain-hunting Olympic visitors.

    Some spruikers are even brashly wearing counterfeit versions of the blue and white Olympic volunteer shirts now-ubiquitous in the city.

    "Business is good. We've got a lot of new customers now due to the Olympics," said a young woman who gave only her surname, Wu, selling pirated Dolce & Gabbana, Polo, and other clothing at Beijing's Silk Street market.

    Merchants at that and other fake-goods emporia had reported a crackdown in recent months as Beijing moved to sweep the city's less-savoury elements such as prostitution under the rug during the Games.

    But despite finding a slightly less varied selection, several shoppers said it looked like business as usual.

    Many shoppers running the gauntlet of pushy vendors in Silk Street's narrow corridors did so with the official yellow badges of Olympic visitors hanging from their necks.

    "It's the same as before except the vendors seem a little more polite. But the prices are higher too," said Kristian Joergensen, 28, a Danish teacher whose brother-in-law competed for Denmark in archery in Beijing.

    Joergensen, who visited the market six years earlier, bought 10 pairs of Dolce & Gabbana underwear for 175 renminbi (25 dollars).

    "Then we saw someone else selling them at 10 pair for 50 yuan. Oh well," he said.

    China is awash in counterfeit DVDs, fake brand-name clothing, shoes and handbags, infuriating China's trading partners who say Western firms lose billions of dollars in sales each year as result.

    The United States filed a case against China in April last year at the World Trade Organisation over the problem.

    Vendors said a pre-Olympic crackdown had shut many factories of fake goods, with authorities especially targetting luxury brand knock-offs such as Gucci and Calvin Klein.

    But with the Olympics underway, knock-offs of Polo, London Fog, Louis Vuitton and other big names were openly sold throughout the city.

    "You want Adidas? No problem," said a woman vendor, pulling a pair of fake Adidas trainers -- priced at 250 yuan -- from a concealed box at the Yashow Clothing Market.

    The five-story complex is just 200 metres from a shiny new official Adidas store.

    A store at the market selling pirated DVDs also continued operation, although it had moved from the first floor to a less-conspicuous sixth-floor room and the selection was thin compared with a few months ago.

    "We'll get more next week. You come back," said a woman minding the room.

    Some longtime Beijing visitors weren't surprised.

    "I knew they wouldn't shut this place up. It's too much of a money-spinner," said Don Lessem, an American living in Mongolia who visits Beijing frequently and was shopping at Silk Street.

    He clutched a bag containing several Armani shirts and New Balance sneakers bought for just a few dollars each.

    Vendors at the complex, whose parking lot was jammed with tourist buses, brashly sported Olympic volunteer shirts to give their illicit sales a Games gloss.

    "The management gave them to us to wear," one young female vendor told AFP.

    "It's to show our Olympic spirit!"
     
    #1 CometsWin, Aug 17, 2008
  2. meh

    meh Member

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    The Chinese government doesn't even care. Piracy is simply not high on their list of priorities for the Olympics. Why bother?

    It's so bad people in China get mocked for buying the real things(provided you're not a millionaire or something). Fake brand name bags and clothes are pretty much the norm.
     
    #2 meh, Aug 17, 2008
  3. wnes

    wnes Contributing Member

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    Well, CommieWin, this is a demand-side economics. When you have demand from cheap foreign consumers, you should expect stuff like this.
     
    #3 wnes, Aug 17, 2008
  4. Matchman

    Matchman Member

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    did the states stop people from downloading music/tv/movies illegally?
     
    #4 Matchman, Aug 17, 2008
  5. Mr. Clutch

    Mr. Clutch Member

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    Yes. :cool:
     
    #5 Mr. Clutch, Aug 17, 2008
  6. yuantian

    yuantian Member

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    if you download any illegal music/movies/software online, then you have no rights to b**** about it. :cool:
     
    #6 yuantian, Aug 17, 2008
  7. lpbman

    lpbman Member

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    Ah the old, "they do bad things too" defense.

    I used to tell my mom that "my friends were doing it too" just before she whooped my ass. She was right.
     
    #7 lpbman, Aug 17, 2008
  8. Lil Pun

    Lil Pun Member

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    2 wrongs don't make a right.
     
    #8 Lil Pun, Aug 17, 2008
  9. yuantian

    yuantian Member

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    US is not China's mom. :D
     
    #9 yuantian, Aug 17, 2008
  10. nyquil82

    nyquil82 Member

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    So Beijing has a Chinatown, too? And the cops don't do anything to stop piracy there, either?

    Fascinating. We should criticize them for not doing their jobs.
     
    #10 nyquil82, Aug 17, 2008
  11. wizkid83

    wizkid83 Member

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    Depends, companies are suing the heck out of file shares and shutting down the more popular sites like Kazaa, then oink, then what ever the next big thing is. I know I've definitely curtailed file sharing after I heard college kids were getting $100K+ fines for it, and it defnitely is a lot harder than it was few years ago.

    I think a similar affect woluld happen in China if major corporations are allowed to set up stings a fine people that buy and sell bootleg goods into oblivion, but I'm never one to stick up for big corps, and I certainly hope things like that don't happen in China. To me it's putting the punishment on those least able to pay it.
     
    #11 wizkid83, Aug 17, 2008
  12. SamFisher

    SamFisher Member

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    Creativity-stifling authoritarian regime which stresses harmony and unity over individualism, leads to an institutionalized IP pirates den focused on copying and theft - *UNSURPRISED*
     
    #12 SamFisher, Aug 17, 2008
  13. Storm Surge

    Storm Surge Rookie

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    it's a scare tactic by those companies they know they cannot stop illegal downloading so they target only a few and hit them with huge fines in order to scare the masses.
     
    #13 Storm Surge, Aug 17, 2008
  14. wizkid83

    wizkid83 Member

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    Sam, you're like the TJ of anti - Chinese postings. It was amusing the first time, but now you're just playing a character. The ironic thing about your post is that a lot of the pirated stuff is how a lot of western thoughts get in. For example, people that want to see an un-edited version of priates of the Carribean gets it through bootleg outlets.
     
    #14 wizkid83, Aug 17, 2008
  15. wizkid83

    wizkid83 Member

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    I know what it is, and it does deter people like me. After I graduated college and have a disposable income, I buy legit stuff now. Though partially also because I feel that now I can actually afford it, I should support some of these art stuff so that they'll keep making them.
     
    #15 wizkid83, Aug 17, 2008
  16. SamFisher

    SamFisher Member

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    I watched the new Batman while eating at a Chinese street-mall in Penang recently - I consumed a delicious bit of Hokkien seafood-noodle soup while doing it.

    I did feel ashamed at having watched a bootleg version of Batman, and promptly left rather than watch the bootlegged conclusion.

    My point about copying is valid however - one of the things I was struck by earlier this week was how all Chinese basketball fans idolized Kobe, LeBron, etc rather than Yao. That's quite telling, but as far as I'm concerned there will never be a Chinese player like Kobe or LeBron because the system would overwhelm them.
     
    #16 SamFisher, Aug 17, 2008
  17. wizkid83

    wizkid83 Member

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    And I would respectively disagree. I have a lot of cousins still in China, and just from what I see the younger generation aren't too different compared to the U.S. There are plenty of individualistic thougts and people are hungry to set them selves apart.

    I know you said you visit China a lot, but I wonder how much "heart to heart" you've actually have with the people there. I would concede that people in China have to grow up faster and face the "real world" at an earier age due to the mass competion and pressure of trying to succeed among 1.3 billion people. Certain industries like art and films they will be hampered as people don't chase dream as heavily.

    But that's not limited to within China or has to do with the Chinese government, it's also part of the overall cultures, that's why a Chinese person will be more likely to pick engineering than film studies in college even in the U.S.
     
    #17 wizkid83, Aug 17, 2008
  18. meh

    meh Member

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    Actually, pirating is hurting China mostly in the technology department, rather than the entertainment/fashion aspect.

    Pirated softwares, IMO, has absolutely destroyed China's own software development. This is a very big deal. If it weren't for piracy, foreign software companies like Microsoft wouldn't be shoving down their "everything's the same as US version except the words are in Chinese" crap down China PC users' throats. But an alternative isn't found because upstarts had no chance to make money back when Windows had not dominated the Chinese market yet.

    It's not even just the OS. It's EVERYTHING. You'd be hard pressed to find much quality Chinese software even though there is plenty of demand. China's hardware has improved dramatically. For example, Lenovo is one of the largest computer manufacturers in the world. But software development is practically non-existent.

    [/rant]
     
    #18 meh, Aug 17, 2008
  19. ROXRAN

    ROXRAN Member

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    Let's just respect China's view that this kind of copyright infringement is not how we see it...Let's respect the differences...After all, China does not tell us how to conduct our business procedures right?...
     
    #19 ROXRAN, Aug 17, 2008
  20. wizkid83

    wizkid83 Member

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    That and what i find funny is that if you want to play video games, you better learn Japanese or English real quick.
     
    #20 wizkid83, Aug 17, 2008
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