Adventures in Copyright, The Business
Panelists at Bazaar‘s Anticounterfeiting Summit Say Knock-offs are Scary
By Erin Geiger Smith
Save the knock-out Hearst view, the line of tables holding fake Louis Vuitton bags and the woman navigating websites that peddle faux designer goods on her iPad, there wasn’t anything amusing about Harper’s Bazaar’s Sixth Annual Anticounterfeiting Summit today. Counterfeiting, it turns out, can be a pretty scary thing.
Conference panelists this year represented businesses outside the fashion industry that also struggle with counterfeiting, such as fragrance and film. The overall message was one not a new one to Fashionista readers: Counterfeiting is bad news, and not just because is involves knocking off someone’s creative work.
One, it funds terrorism. (The 2004 Madrid bombings were funded in part by the sales of counterfeit TV shows and movies, Bazaar Publisher Valerie Salembier noted). Two, it hurts creative businesses’ rank and file workers. (It isn’t Will Smith who takes a hit when movies are ripped off, director Steven Soderbergh said. It’s John Smith, the grip.) And three, it can be dangerous–and pretty gross. (L’Oreal’s Carol Hamilton assured us that we did not want to know what is in fake perfumes but that it isn’t something we’d want to put on our skin.)
Obviously the solution to the worldwide counterfeiting problem wasn’t solved over a long lunch, even if Bazaar did provide wine. But the panelists and the fashionable attendees who questioned them–the audience was largely made up of those on the business side of fashion–seemed to agree that nothing will change without companies doing a much better job of informing the public of the harm counterfeit goods cause.
The most interesting exchange of the day was between Bazaar EIC Glenda Bailey, who was sitting in the audience, and Soderbergh. Bailey stressed that changing people’s perception about fakes must be done through powerful ad campaigns to educate consumers. “I am so fascinated that people are not taking more initiatives in their own area,” she said. No one, she pointed out, could make a better ad for how counterfeits hurt Hollywood than Soderbergh, she pressed.
Soderbergh agreed that getting the hungry masses on the anti-counterfeiting bandwagon is integral, but said that Hollywood suffering just isn’t an argument people care about. People have no sympathy for luxury goods, either, Bailey countered.
Maybe Bailey planted a seed in the mind of the man that brought us Ocean’s 11. We picture a frozen scene from the hyper-commercial Sex and the City 2, with a freeze frame telling us exactly how many people in Hollywood and fashion were involved in costuming and filming a single frame, and how many jobs will disappear in both industries should counterfeiting not be curbed.
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its funny how they say how knockoffs hurt “hollywood”, when so much of “hollywood” is fake! all these it bags, accessories and outfits are mostly all gifted and loaned, set up through pr depts of all the companies. the jokes on society.. companies want consumers buying and carrying their products, but its this crazy consumerism that drives consumers to resort to knockoff industry to feed their craving … not to mention the “fast fashion” industry ( zara, HM etc) .. they are just glorified knock off companies themselves! but hey thats how the fashion cycle work/world works…
I completely agree with this! Counterfeits not only infringe on the rights of designers they hurt many people throughout the world. I wish consumers would stop trying to be cheap and realize what they are supporting.
im sorry, i dont understand….how are movies knocked off? pirating DVDs?
Pretty much every middle-aged woman here in the Midwest who goes to either coast comes back with a couple of knock-off handbags. I guess it goes with the idea that paying four+ figures for something that performs the essential function of a plastic shopping bag is ridiculous. If counterfeiters are able to make a virtually indistinguishable bag for a fraction of the price and still make a profit, maybe that's a little hint for luxury brands. There's precious little sympathy around here for Louis and Coach.
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Yeah.
I agree that there is very little sympathy for Louis and Coach (especially since Coach moved all production to China), however counterfeit bags are often, if not always, made under terribly inhumane conditions by children and women. In Dana Thomas's “Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Luster,” she describes a factory floor filled with children whose legs have been broken to prevent them from running away. While these bags are sometimes indistinguishable from the original, they carry a price much higher than their cheap tags suggest.
Okay, I absolutely agree on points 2 and 3, and unlike many people, I think that those reasons are enough to keep me from supporting the practice, but I'm not totally convinced on the terrorism point. Are there any other instances aside from the Madrid bombings? It seems like linking anything and everything to terrorism in an attempt to drum up support is the thing to do nowadays, and I think it is damaging and downright silly in some cases.
urine is in fake perfume to balance the ph
Bottom line is Copying is cheating!!! Cheating is morally wrong….What you can't afford is not the end of the world. Those who have this lust for a brand name bag so much they get a fake have a little extra work to do on the inside.
Bottom line is Copying is cheating!!! Cheating is morally wrong….What you can't afford is not the end of the world. Those who have this lust for a brand name bag so much they get a fake have a little extra work to do on the inside.
Bottom line is Copying is cheating!!! Cheating is morally wrong….What you can't afford is not the end of the world. Those who have this lust for a brand name bag so much they get a fake have a little extra work to do on the inside.
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Rachel baby I've missed you!!!
Rachel baby I've missed you!!!
Dana Thomas also brings up the idea that fakes fund terrorism in her book Deluxe.
word up, sister!
Perhaps Hollywood and the fashion industry should really get involved in solving the problem. I think SHOWING people is the best method, not just telling people how disgusting the world of counterfeit goods really is… Put real money, time and talent behind a documentary, billboards, etc.that would show the conditions their fake Louis Vuitton's were being made under and display the horror of the environment and crime efforts it took one bag to make it to Canal street. It took one shot of kids producing Kathy Lee Gifford's clothing to make huge strides in ending child labor and raising public awareness of such conditions. Perhaps people will start looking at counterfeit goods as evil and wrong if it was shown to them on a human level, rather than the business side. How amazing would it be if one of the previews before Sex and the City 2 was a compelling statement against counterfeit goods, that showed the horror of it? Think of the millions of people that would reach!
You are right, most people don't care about Louis Vuitton and their profit loss and when they think Hollywood they think celebrity. They have little understanding of how it really impacts the industry as a whole but most people do care about kids, inhuman working conditions and possible terrorism.The message should not change but the way we are delivering the message should if we want real understanding; and with understanding and awareness hopefully a resolution not to buy counterfeit goods.
If middle-aged women in the Midwest think paying four+ figures for a bag is ridiculous, then why do they feel compelled to buy an imitation of said bag? Why don't they buy any other equally attractive bag that is a fraction of the price but doesn't resemble a ridiculously priced luxury bag?
You're not making a statement about high prices by purchasing a counterfeit. You're just cheating.
This “news” is like a decade old. Anyone who still buys fake bags is a de facto terrorist.
if women and children make this bags under inhumane conditions, what happens if that “job” is take away from them? can you imagine what else they might be forced to do? i am in now way supporting counterfeiting products, but as americans, it's easy to look down on supposed inhumane conditions while we have the comforts of working in our cushy office spaces. i'm guessing, there aren't any better alternatives, which is why these women and children work under such conditions in the first place…
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(Side note: Is anyone else severly bothered by the new posting format here??? Eww…)
You need understand the value of intellectual property before you can understand that your comments are offensive. Maybe you already do and you're simply ignoring their value?? Stealing someone's designs is that same thing as going across the street and stealing your neighbor's car. If you don't value the original design, and you de-value it by saying it does nothing more than carry your shopping, then why would you even need to buy a knock-off. You don't need to have sympathy cor Vuitton and Coach to adhere to intellectual property rights. And if you don't, you are simply supporting terrorism, the drug and arms trade, child and slave labor and a multitude of other ills.
Absolutely. The World Trade Center bombing in the early 90s was funded by the sale of counterfiet t-shirts right in the heart if New York – that's just one of the terrorism ties revealed in Dana Thomas' book.
EWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!
I'm amazed by the way people will buy the “if you do blank, you are aiding THE TERRORISTS.” I'm absolutely positive that the family I know that sells knock off handbags at street sales is not funneling money to Al-Qaeda. I'm not surprised the fashion industry would try to sell such a stupid claim to people via advertising and a faux “panel” but I'm disappointed Fashionista would report on it without any critical thinking about issue. Are Louis Vuitton bags really worth thousands of dollars, no. They just aren't. And the absolute ease with which someone can mass produce the exact same thing for a fraction of the price calls attention to that. I can see why the fashion industry would hate that. But Terrorists? Give me a break.
If designer brands manufacture their bags in China they only have themselves to blame. If you have decent contacts in China, you can buy so-called fakes made using the same leathers, hardware and made in the same factory as the original for a small fraction of the cost the “real”bags retail for abroad. Chinese manufacturers are also raided for counterfeits, so the real deal, as opposed to the cheap fakes are not generally on display, and you need an intro to see them. I only have sympthy for brands who manufacture in Italy etc. The rest are just racketeers making thousands of per cent profits.