There’s an interesting article in the New York Times this week about a study conducted by Duke/MIT professor that may color the ongoing fakes debate.

The basic idea behind Professor Dan Ariely’s study, Faking It: The Psychology of Dishonesty and Counterfeits, is that if you do it once (buy a knockoff), you’ll do it again, and it doesn’t just affect your style but your behavior as well. “The effect on morality, people don’t anticipate,” says Ariely. Harsh? Yes. So let’s take a look at the experiment:

Ariely took 250 people and split them into groups of two, giving each one the same pair of “designer” sunglasses. He then told one group their new sunnies were faux, and the other group that theirs were real. Everyone was then given the same math test. Out of those who were wearing the counterfeit glasses, 60% cheated on their test. But for those who were sporting the real deal, only 20% stooped to cheating. (And this was just one of a few different mini-experiments he used to gather his data.)

We’re not sure of all the details (Did any of the subjects know each other? Was one group younger than the other? Were these experiments conducted multiple times each, or just once? etc), but the main question remains: Does buying a Canal Street fake Fendi mean you’re more likely to cheat on anything from a test to a boyfriend? Or does this seem like a bit of a reach?

Ariely’s study basically asserts that buying a fake is a slippery slope, kind of like the gateway drugs from DARE. They can be cheap, they can be easy, and nobody pays attention to anti-counterfeiting ads anyway. But does it mean something more about you if you partake?

-CARSON GRIFFITH

At least one company’s so annoyed with getting knocked off that they’re taking serious anti-counterfeiting measures -

Rather than relying on police cracking down on fakes, Loro Piana’s decided to make their goods un-fakeable.

They’ve created their own metal ring bearing the Loro Piana logo that’ll be sewn into each of their cashmere products. The rings will be engraved with an identifying serial number that can be used to trace the origins of each product, down to which piece of fabric it was cut from and which batch of yarn was used to weave its raw fiber.

We think their initiative is great, even though we think it would be fairly easy for a counterfeiter to just throw any old number onto a metal ring to make the scarf appear genuine at first glance, but then again, maybe the process would just be too expensive to make the fakes worth it.

(In other counterfeit news, we hear Forever 21 is about to be embroiled in a huge fake-related battle - a tipster says an LA lawyer is “representing a handful of names bringing some big suits against them” - care to take some guesses?)

We probably haven’t watched PBS since the last time we tuned in for Sesame Street, but we think we might have to forgo TiVo’ed Gossip Girl episodes for a little educational broadcasting tonight.

Illicit: The Dark Trade, a National Geographic Special, airs at 8pm EST, and we’re too curious to not see how deep into the world of fake bags it’ll go.

The documentary is based on the 2005 best seller Illicit, by Foreign Policy Editor-in-Chief Dr. Moisés Naím, who thinks that the economy surrounding fake goods could be more dangerous than terrorism - definitely comes off as an overstatement, but maybe we’ll understand after we see it tonight.

And if it sounds like enough of you tune in, too, maybe we’ll even have a little class discussion in Community tomorrow.

For now, we just think it’s too bad it couldn’t premiere in tandem with the Murakami exhibit.

By now you’ve surely heard all the buzz surrounding tonight’s ball at the Brooklyn Museum celebrating Takashi Murakami’s “Murakami” exhibit.

Kanye West will perform, Marc Jacobs will pose, Jay-Z might appear…yadda yadda. As always, we’re most concerned with the fashion.

At left is the LV camouflage print designed for the event (which we think is actually pretty genius), which will be sold, along with other LV bags, at tonight’s event via ten New York street vendor style booths. The move is meant to showcase just how serious Louis Vuitton is about cracking down on fakes, a part of the company’s new “zero tolerance” policy on counterfeits. They’re even having a press conference about it right before tonight’s event.

No word on whether Marc’s Göran Olofsson scarf will be sold alongside other LV goodies…

We got into a little scuffle with our favorite (ok, our only) Fashionista contributing editor, Josh Madden, when he showed us the Ezekiel tote on the right.

We said, “Omigosh, they stole the Damier Speedy from Louis Vuitton! That’s so wrong!”

He said, “But Ezekiel is a skater brand for sixteen year old girls. They can’t buy a Louis. So why shouldn’t they have this?”

We said, “Because they should have a Le Sportsac or a Gap or a Banana Republic, like we did when we were in high school.”

He said, “But this is so much cuter. And Le Sportsac is overpriced.”

We said, “But it’s kind of against the law. And maybe if you colored all over it with paint pens, it would be better…”

And that was pretty much it. The Ezekial bag sells for $44 (also overpriced, Josh!) and the Speedy is $650 at eLuxury, which - trivia - is the only authorized online site to sell Louis Vuitton.

The Swede whose designs were stolen by Marc Jacobs has finally been compensated.

Swedish papers report today that Göran Olofsson has reached a settlement with Marc Jacobs and LVMH, after Marc copied the print for a silk scarf first sold by Olofsson’s father in the ’70s.

Olofsson declined to disclose his settlement, but we’d like to hear from you:

How much is reasonable when a major designer knocks off your creation? And should it be more or less than when Forever 21 does it?

WHICH beautiful socialite is often on the Vogue Best Dressed list despite the fact that she carries counterfeit designer bags? She says she likes them because “they’re funny.”

Reader Helen alerted us to a very strange knockoff, indeed:

The shoes at left are not, in fact, the same. One is from Dolce Vita, sold at Urban Outfitters.

The other appears to be Urban Outfitters’ own take on the show, except with a pointier toe and a slightly altered buckle.

But why?

You’re out $30 either way, so we’re not really sure why they bothered to knockoff Dolce Vita in the first place.

Why make the knockoff if the higher quality original is the same price, and on the same site?

Better yet - Why copy a shoe at all if it’s not more like Miu Miu?

The NYPD raided an enormous counterfeit operation on Canal Street yesterday, reports WWD.

The facts:

1. 32 illegal storefronts were shut down.

2. $1M of knockoffs - from handbags to perfumes - were confiscated.

The reality:

This isn’t the first time the city has staged a huge crackdown on counterfeit sellers, and the market for them has bounced back every time.

We’d like to think that this is the beginning of the end - with yesterday’s raid, the NYPD has targeted the landlord that seems to be behind the majority of the buildings involved - but we think it’s likely that the operation may just move elsewhere. We’ve seen a lot of sellers by the South Street Seaport and near the World Trade Center, in hopes of catching the Saturday afternoon tourist foot traffic.

But if Canal Street really does go through a change, what will it look like? Could this be the beginning of actual shopping on Canal? We wonder if Steve Madden is looking for a new location…

If you still haven’t gotten your fill on canvas tote bags (was 2007 the year of tote bags?), there’s something kind of amazing about this “Fake Bag.”

A set of 100 of these guys were made for a Korean art exhibit called “Wake Up Andy Warhol,” and you can definitely see the pop art influence.

It comes with a bunch of ribbon prizes that you can affix to the accessory, and it can be worn in several ways:

One side has a graphic of the fake bag, and the other side has a graphic of a real Louis Vuitton bag and the text on the bottom reads “perfect.”

We’re not completely sure what to make of this bag, but we’re intrigued.

Would Richard Prince approve of the spoofing?

—ALISON COOL

Walking back from Crunch, and these women behind me swing big plastic bags - the sturdy, static kind from Chinatown that Vuitton spoofed in ‘05.

They are dressed like tourists - that is to say, dressed like they think New York women dress. All black. Pashminas. Boots trying to be Uggs.

The oldest one says to the youngest one, “Honey, do you want me to carry your bag?”

She answers, “No thanks, Mom, I want to carry my own Paddington!” Then she says, “Won’t it be funny if I put it in my Barney’s bag and then everyone thinks it’s real?”

Wow, and I have an idea.

I race home and eBay “Hermes Box,” and “Vuitton Box.”

They’re all buyable, for about $5 - there’s even a Birkin box and an Hermes plastic bag meant to protect your Birkin in the rain, which sells for $100 - and will no doubt sell to some guy who wants to trick his wife into thinking she’s getting a real Birkin for Christmas.

Then I start scheming:

A Tiffany box and a plastic ring, and a girl would be totally and completely fooled.

The packaging is on eBay - for $2.