Friday, February 17, 2006

Human face of IP pirates

Kristi Heim looked 'inside the teeming world of fake goods' for the Seattle Times, you can read at the site of ContraCostaTimes here.

In the article the difference between the national efforts to enforce IPR piracy and the local resistance is highlighted:

"But thanks to the advance warning, the lackadaisical inspection was as inauthentic as many of the products at Xiangyang. By the next week, the fake designer goods were back on the shelves. Business for Huang and the others returned to normal."

Heim is giving the IP pirates a human face, not to justify their behaviour, but to explain their motives. However, it's easier to give a find small time hawkers to give a face to, than to multimillion yuan piracy tycoons.

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