Friday, February 18, 2011

Week 6 EOC: Illicit


Fake handbags, watches, shoes, and perfumes. The business of Counterfeit Goods is the largest underground industry in the world. Hundreds of billions of dollars are generated while sapping the economy, putting lives in jeopardy, and funding organized crime in the process. At around 7% of all global trade, counterfeit goods are a big business with low overhead. It makes too much money to go away anytime soon.” (http://www.cnbc.com/id/37824347/) In every country, counterfeit goods are being confiscated. These days it’s not just fashion goods that are at risk to be counterfeit. Almost anything you buy could be a counterfeit. Medicine has been found that’s made with poison and other everyday items are found to be unstable to the point that they could blow up or melt. “Among the most lethal counterfeits are medicines. Imposter products, including counterfeit cough syrup and baby formula, have killed thousands worldwide ... and the death toll continues to rise.” (http://www.cnbc.com/id/37824347/) “Counterfeiting has become such a problem in the United States that Congress has even gone so far as to pass the “Stop Counterfeiting in Manufactured Goods Act” in 2006.” (http://www.iccwbo.org/uploadedFiles/BASCAP/Pages/crime.pdf) Having only seen a few fake handbags, I can understand the reasoning behind making them. The ones that are copied are expensive and only the very rich can afford them. However these brands have earned the right to make their price points as high as they please. They are targeting a specific market and if you can’t afford to be part of that market, don’t add to the problem by buying a fake replica. A logo is a trademark that has been paid for and earned. It’s plagiarism to copy that and those that do should be punished. The fashion goods that I’ve seen copied are poor imitations of the real ones and aren’t worth the money paid for them.

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