Everyday businesses provide the world with products and services. People in general are just not self-sufficient. Who has time to make their own clothes, own meals,clean their own house, or even watch their own kids? Today's every growing business world and advancements in technology make it extremely easy to obtain anything one could ever desire provided they have the money to buy it. Many people gained great success and wealth from their original product and business ideas. People have alsogained great wealth from borrowing, stealing or adapting from one 'original' idea.
The majority of copying and fraud involves software and clothing items.
(Edwards6) One aspect of this is known as bootlegging. this is where someone copies a program, CD, performance, etc., and sells it on the streets. According to Mike Edward's of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry claims that world wide CD piracy accounts for 6.5% of the industries annual sales.
A different approach to borrowing one's idea doesn't nessacarily copythe product. Instead it involves misleading the consumer. As in one case, the Miller Brewing Company developed a new beer with a label similar to Annheuser Busch's, who is currently the number one brewer in America. The 'new brew' was aimed at taking away sales from 'the King of Beers.' (Melcher 37)
Logos are also often copied. A logo is defined as an advertising symbol or message that represents a product or a service. In one case, OJ Simpson has agreed to share marketing rights with the Florida Department of Citrus to use his initial in connection with orange juice. (Wells 1)
Materials can be illegally duplicated in many different ways. This includes everything sharing software, to copying CD's, to illegal sweatshops. Commercial goodshave either patents which are supposed to protect them from illegal duplication.
Digital technology is becoming a big problem for graphic artists who are trying to protect their creations. Scanners have made it very easy to duplicate images instantly. The creator must apply for a copyright in order to be able to sue for fraud. Images that are not copyrighted are in the public domain. Also, copyrights expire 50 years after the
creator's death. (Baer 163)
China plays a major role in copyright piracy. Officials estimate that China exports about $827 million dollars a year of impostor products. An example of this is shampoo with a familiar American brand label, but containing different ingredients than the US versions. This can sometimes lead to health and safety hazards. (Ludwig and Koenig 270) A customer can then become dissatisfied with the US company causing the US
company to lose sales when they had nothing to do with it. Chinese copyright pirates net about 2.5 billion dollars a year from these counterfeit records. (Ludwig and Koenig 26)
Most counterfeited products tend to be cheaply amde using flimsy plastics, inexpensive polyester, or cheap screen printing machines. Sometimes products appear tobe so 'real,' that even legitimate business owners can't tell the difference. One factorycounterfeited Gucci watches that looked so authentic, even Swiss experts had a hard time determining that they were phonies. (Simon 1)
Usually product knock-off ...