By Kikuyo Yamada
Did you know that over 94% of entertainment software in Asia is pirated? Well, let me put it this way, is the music you’re listening to…real? Counterfeiting and piracy now comprise10% of world trade. Most of these fake goods originate in Asia, and China ranks as the No.1 counterfeiter. Believe it or not, almost everything can be counterfeited. VCDs, Nike shoes, peanut butter, Viagra, watches, condoms, and the latest design of Gucci handbags…anything you can think of. The scale and the amount of counterfeiting are staggering. And to make things worse, counterfeiting and piracy issues are also flaring up right now, right here in Taipei. As students we might not care much about this problem. But if we take a closer look at things around us, we will be surprised that our world is flooded with pirated goods. The most obvious case is big-name designer brands such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, and Chanel. If you stop by a stall at a night market and the vendor tells you that the Gucci bag is only NT 699, and that you’ll get a discount for two, you can bet it’s not real. These days, the fakers are becoming far more skilled at their trade. Even a leather expert with a microscope can hardly detect the difference in stitching between Louis Vuitton’s new Monogram bag (list price: NT 35,000) and a copy on sale for NT 1200 with street vendors in Taipei. However, have you ever realized that counterfeiting actually hinders people’s creativity? Talented people might show reluctance to be creative because their original ideas might be cheaply forged. Try to imagine yourself as a designer, strolling around the night market, when all of a sudden you notice piles of poor imitations of your work… The more pirated goods we consumers purchase, the more harmful it is to intellectual property. Violating intellectual property laws is a serious problem and we shouldn’t underestimate its outcome. Perhaps one day, even the products in the boutiques might not be real anymore, but you’ll still have to spend a great deal of money to buy them…that’s definitely not what we want to see in future. Now, are you still sure that your NT 10,000 Air Jordans are real, or a real counterfeit? Can you tell which one is real and why? #Volume 8 Issue 1 a
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The Taida Student Journal has been active since 1995 with an ever-changing roster of student journalists at NTU. Click the above link to read about the authors Archives
May 2024
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