Pirated Goods Seized In Sukhumvit Soi 5

[Lorin]

I been to Patpong last nite round 11 PM, very few tourist walking around, no pirated cd's or watches on sale, only bags.

[Plus]

It's really not that big of a deal. Sure tourists see it "everywhere" but I don't know any locals who'd buy their stuff in those places, especially watches.

Locals buy lots of fake jeans and bags, true, but it's a different market altogether, no effect on sales of real LV or even Levis.

[johna]

Lets hang all these fake designer dealers, protect Bill Gates and his friends from pirated copy's of Win OS.

Let's get down to the very bottom of society where these dealers are destroying the economy of the world that our politicians, bankers and Wall St dealers have worked so hard to build.

Tell the BIB, those staunch defenders of society to take of the kid gloves when arresting this scum.

[Oberkommando]

There are huge numbers of highly skilled artists and craftspeople in Thailand. Thailand has far better offerings for tourists than faked gucci bags etc.

Such as?

Other than handmade trinkets and throwaway junk everything else is more expensive than back home, sometimes significantly more so.

Someone mentioned it will drive tourists away--Do you really think people come here to buy fake designer products? And if they do, they are probably the same type of people who come here to get cheap drugs.

Certainly many tourists buy copied goods when they come here. Whether that is their sole reason for coming I don't know but it will be a factor in many cases.

It's a bit of a stretch to compare those buying a fake handbag on holiday with those filling a suitcase with pharmaceuticals to make profit back home.

[brahmburgers]

I had a g.f who worked in one of the sweat shops in Bkk, about 10 years ago, when she was 12,13. Her stepfather brought her down from the north, sold her for a couple thousand baht. She probably cleared about 150 baht in a good week. She said she was the fastest sewer-girl in the room. Then her stepfather came down again, when she was 14, and sold her again - this time to a restaurant which probably had its waitresses doing extracurricular activity after hours. She was an interesting girl when I met her, at 20 years, but emotionally frazzled. She would go ballistic about slight things.

As for importing container loads of faked goods from China: Besides the most obvious way to get across borders (bribe officials), it's possible some goods, such as clothing could be shipped in without labels, and the labels sewn on in Bkk.

I've bought pirated stuff at Burmese border towns. CD's and DVD's are often faulty - petering out about half-way. In my particularly naive days, I even bought a fake Panasonic video player. It started out crappy, and went downhill from there.

[Johpa]

can't they think of cool things to sell which don't have a designer label? I can. So too can some of my hill tribe neighbors up here in northernmost Thailand. Some are selling very cool tote bags with beautiful patterns. When I had a used Levis outlet in California, I had bags made from the upper part of jeans - and they sold well. Maybe the crackdown will jangle the counterfitters to use a modicum of their creative facilities - if they have any neurons left to be jangled.

The group that seemingly has a neuron deficit are those withe the branded brains that feel it necessary to pay exorbitant prices for designer goods based upon the premise that possessing these goods will attest to both their imagined lifestyle and their imagined importance. These are the walking and talking brain dead. For a good read try Naomi Klein's book on the subject No Logo. As for the people selling this stuff on the lower Suk, just some poor folks trying to eke out a living.

And sorry to say, but purchasing designer fakes is a big part of the Farang tourist experience in Asia and although not the primary motivating force, it is will cause not a few swing votes in making the decision to visit the region.

[nickynomates]

When you stop being copied thats when you have big trouble.

Many companies being copied deep down often revel in it as it generated more income.

[basjke]

The pittance paid by, for example, the athletic shoe companies to the workers in Asia is a scandalous form of slavery and child exploitation.

I wonder how much the people that produce the fake goods are paid. And i wonder it they are exploited as well?? Not that that justifies the shoe companies in any shape or form. But reforming their production policy / methods would be a hel_l of a lot easier that trying to reform the production methods of pirated products.

Individual governments need to get of their proverbial <deleted> and start demanding decent wages and working conditions for their people. I think we are all in agreement with that.

Yup, the Chinese government is getting serious on that since a couple of years but without avail.

Most of the fakes are produced in China - not Thailand.

I am not sure there is any proof that most of the fakes seen in Thailand are made in China. Customs in Thailand are notoriously corrupt, but could you conceive of getting that many containers filled with fake goods into Thailand? How would the stuff get here? Overland through multiple borders?

Every year their are brought thousands of containers with fake goods into europe,with or without cooperation from corrupt customs.

It is well known corruption in europe is nothing compared to thailand.

Do you still doubt all these fake goods hit any obstacle to get imported in Thailand

[samgrowth]

I had a g.f who worked in one of the sweat shops in Bkk, about 10 years ago, when she was 12,13. Her stepfather brought her down from the north, sold her for a couple thousand baht. She probably cleared about 150 baht in a good week. She said she was the fastest sewer-girl in the room. Then her stepfather came down again, when she was 14, and sold her again - this time to a restaurant which probably had its waitresses doing extracurricular activity after hours. She was an interesting girl when I met her, at 20 years, but emotionally frazzled. She would go ballistic about slight things.

As for importing container loads of faked goods from China: Besides the most obvious way to get across borders (bribe officials), it's possible some goods, such as clothing could be shipped in without labels, and the labels sewn on in Bkk.

I've bought pirated stuff at Burmese border towns. CD's and DVD's are often faulty - petering out about half-way. In my particularly naive days, I even bought a fake Panasonic video player. It started out crappy, and went downhill from there.

Are you sure that video player are still on sales. I don't think anyone can buy one new, may it be Thailand or Burma.

[longtom]

Lets hang all these fake designer dealers, protect Bill Gates and his friends from pirated copy's of Win OS.

Let's get down to the very bottom of society where these dealers are destroying the economy of the world that our politicians, bankers and Wall St dealers have worked so hard to build.

Tell the BIB, those staunch defenders of society to take of the kid gloves when arresting this scum.

[samgrowth]

Police do it for show only lah. Still don't get it?

[KhunAlbert]

Taking someone's intellectual property is theft.

If you live in Thailand long enough, you may begin to think it's OK.

[Plus]

Taking someone's intellectual property is theft.

It is often said that Thai society is two hundred years behind the west and two hundred years ago there was such thing as intellectual property theft, so there.

II think freely copying and distributing of "intellectual property" made a big contribution to technological development, pretty much like Open Source software now.

There was plagiarism, though.

[BigSnake]

Clean up the mess for now, not to worry for they will return as soon as the Heat is OFF!!

[kujirasan]

is this the supplier for the 100 ' s of stalls along the main Sukhumvit road there???????

Probably not. Just someone late in paying her/his bribe money.

LOL

Man you said it all

[KhunAlbert]

A friend went to buy some copy DVDs yesterday.

The vendors said they could not sell.

Goes to show, the police can stop it...when they want to.

The BMA control every centimeter of the footpaths.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29324583@N05/...4418287/detail/

Edited May 18, 2009 by KhunAlbert

[binnsy]

They will return and be looking for there money and the only way they will get it is by upping the amount us falang pay for these items.So a watch will be $20 a handbag $30 we have lost again.

[connel707]

I don't know which is harder to believe: The people on ThaiVisa who defend these people, or the actual criminals doing the selling.

Someone mentioned it will drive tourists away--Do you really think people come here to buy fake designer products? And if they do, they are probably the same type of people who come here to get cheap drugs.

And saying it has no impact on the 'real' product maybe true--but somebody owns the right to the 'real' product.

It's against the law and laws should be enforced. If not, they can suspend the law and take whatever consequences go with that--they had no trouble doing it with the compulsory drug licensing issue.

In one case out of a hundred a point is excessively discussed because it is obscure; in the ninety-nine remaining it is obscure because it is excessively discussed

[ianf]

I hope that this enforcement action allows tourist and residents to use the "bicycle lane" painted down the middle of the sidewalk. Not!

Years ago a yellow line was painted on the sidewalk... called "tourist walk way". You were given a small red book with attractions listed.

That line was running across the entire city with some "attraction" marked. Good idea but it died quickly...

BTW a "bicycle lane" is a motorbike lane.... TiT !

There is a lot of nonsense discussed here about designer rip-offs. First of all copyright breaches are nothing more than theft and people (however poor) involved in this kind of theft deserve no sympathy. Its not all criminal gangs or from China. My ex-mother in law produced faked Addidas and so on. She had a legitamate sportswear company making cheap sporty clothes for local hospitals/schools and so on, but the fakes were made in little workshops amongst the coconut trees of Thap Sakae. When she was inspected, she showed them the genuine clothes factory and the inspectors left happily.

When we talk about Thai creativity - you only have to come to Chiang Mai's Sunday night market to see creativity at work. Local people - many of them admittedly arty middle class types I think, selling all sorts of creative items that they have made themselves - painted stones, t-shirts, artworks, lamps - all manner of things. And the market is packed every Sunday with browsers and buyers.

So there is an alternative to the designer rip-offs available in Patpong, Sukhumvit and so on.

I get especially annoyed to see rip-offs of films and music. OK, some of the film makers/stars/singers may be hugely wealthy - but the industry relies on royalties and sales to turn this into more media for us to enjoy.

I too have owned copyrights (small scale and now sold) but I would have not been able to grow a business had my products been ripped off and stolen.

Sorry guys, the fake scene just really annoys me and its not about the money. Its about stealing other peoples' talent, creativity and so on. Tell me if you have no talent yourself why should you steal someone elses? The sooner these scam rip-offs are shut down forever the happier I'll be!

Edited May 19, 2009 by ianf

[Plus]

Maybe you have to look at it as not stealing but "sharing".

There are so many loopholes in copyright laws that there's no point in talking about fairness. Lately I haven't seen any creativity in entertainment industry, for example. It's all just ripoffs, even if properly copyrighted.

People learn how to "create" movies and music in big schools and they don't pay any royalty to inventors of hip hop or romantic comedies.

This issue can be debated forever, there's no obvious answer acceptable to everyone, just acknowledge that there are arguments for both sides.

If producers of fake bags can make and extra hundred baht by sticking on ten baht labels on their generic products - who can blame them? They are not cheating their customers, not selling their fakes as genuine products (most of the time, anyway).

I don't fully understand the argument that football fans must pay money to their clubs for the privilege to wear t-shirts with a club name on it. When did this become a law? At school I spent a lot of time drawing my team logo on all kinds of things, notebooks, desks, even walls. Should I have paid royalty for that, too?

[johna]

Intellectual Property Right laws are a form of trade barrier, which gives the copy right holder an unfair advantage in the market place, the vast majority of goods in the market place do not have any protection, and do not need any.

Free competition in the market place promotes innovation in these industries which keeps them healthy.

So why do Pharmaceutical, Software and other companies demand such protection.

The argument the pharmaceutical company’s use is that if the products they produce can be copied there will not be any new money in R&D.

In the USA only 43% of all R&D money in development of new pharmaceutical products comes from the pharmaceutical industry, 29% comes from the US government and 28% from charitable foundations.

Profit has never been the primary motivation in scientific inquiry.

Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web and its script http without which Microsoft would never have come into existence.

If the copy right laws were abolished tomorrow the private industry would not stop R&D, it simple would not be in their interest to do so, there is enough profit to be made in any new product to ensure its continued development.

The only thing the pharmaceutical, software industry would be forced to do is lower their vastly inflated prices.

[Crushdepth]

The shop will probably be open again in a couple of days and the 'confiscated goods' back on sale. And why raid one shop when there are hundreds in that area? More token action from the authorities, who almost certainly profit from this business.

[TypicalAnonym]

Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web and its script http without which Microsoft would never have come into existence

Berners-Lee unveiled his invention in 1989-90. Microsoft was already 15 years old by then.

But who cares about the facts, when all corporations are inherently evil, right? We should all be sitting around the campfire singing kumbaya and no one is entitled to grow rich by producing things that are of value to humanity because that's "obscene".

[bonobo]

The designer companies are so greedy any ways. They just want all the money for themselves. It is outrageous when a small LV bag cost more than 20,000 bth. I have no sympathy for these mega million $ companies anyway,

These pirated junk are very small compare to the crime these big companies do

Just how is it criminal for a company to charge whatever they want to charge for a given product?  If the designers at Gucci can come up with a bag which people are willing to spend 20,000 baht to own, how is that Gucci's fault?  What crime are they committing?  

If the bag is too expensive, then don't buy it!

[johna]

Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web and its script http without which Microsoft would never have come into existence

Berners-Lee unveiled his invention in 1989-90. Microsoft was already 15 years old by then.

But who cares about the facts, when all corporations are inherently evil, right? We should all be sitting around the campfire singing kumbaya and no one is entitled to grow rich by producing things that are of value to humanity because that's "obscene".

Sorry about that, yes I got that fact wrong mea culpa, and I see no reason why you should not grow rich, but patents are a monopoly that distort the market and kill competition, Microsoft's market dominance allows it to absorb or destroy any software competitors.

MSNBC 2007

The European Court of First Instance ruled Monday the European Commission was correct in concluding that Microsoft used its dominance in desktop computers to muscle into server software and media players in the 1990s — and that Microsoft still poses similar threats.

NY TIMES 2008

Microsoft asked Europe's second-highest court to overturn or reduce a record fine of 899 million euros ($1.4 billion) from the European Union. The appeal was filed at the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg, a Microsoft spokesman, Jesse Verstraete, said in an e-mailed statement. The European Commission, the E.U.'s antitrust authority, fined the company on Feb. 27 for failing to comply with a 2004 antitrust order. Under that decision, in which Microsoft was fined 497 million euros, the E.U. ordered the software maker to provide data to rivals to allow servers to connect to the Windows platform.

http://www.builderau.com.au

A Dutch software dealer has filed a complaint against Microsoft with the European Commission, arguing that the company's pricing policy in Europe violates antitrust laws.

Company owner Samir Abdalla's complaint is that Microsoft charges at least a third more for its software in Europe than it does in the US. Abdalla's lawyer, Gerard van der Wal of the Houthoff Buruma practice, said his client had begun a legal proceeding "this week" and was seeking clarification from the commission

Tom Espiner, ZDNet UK | 2007/10/25 08:16:02

Open-source software company Red Hat has said that it is concerned that Microsoft patent arrangements may not be compatible with open-source licensing models.

While Red Hat welcomed Microsoft's recent decision to comply with the European Court of First Instance's antitrust ruling, Michael Cunningham, general counsel for Red Hat, stated that the company was still concerned about Microsoft's patent model.

[johna]

The designer companies are so greedy any ways. They just want all the money for themselves. It is outrageous when a small LV bag cost more than 20,000 bth. I have no sympathy for these mega million $ companies anyway,

These pirated junk are very small compare to the crime these big companies do

Just how is it criminal for a company to charge whatever they want to charge for a given product?  If the designers at Gucci can come up with a bag which people are willing to spend 20,000 baht to own, how is that Gucci's fault?  What crime are they committing?  

If the bag is too expensive, then don't buy it!

You can charge what ever you want for your product, that's not the problem.

Since 1982 patent laws have been so liberal you can patent a plastic wrapped crust less sandwich.

By doing so you kill all competition

[Miserere]

This fake stuff is great, me and the Mrs bought a shat load on our last trip, brought it back to the uk and bunged it on Ebay.

Paid for our flights.

Result.

[ianf]

This fake stuff is great, me and the Mrs bought a shat load on our last trip, brought it back to the uk and bunged it on Ebay.

Paid for our flights.

Result.

Disgusting is all I can say. Why do people have to behave like this?

[stumonster]

I have a patent filed for

using an online forum to complain about the world

please remove your complaints or else I will have to ask my legal representatives to send you a letter

Edited May 19, 2009 by stumonster

[Splatter]

<<SNIP>> but patents are a monopoly that distort the market and kill competition, Microsoft's market dominance allows it to absorb or destroy any software competitors.

I setup my own business. Not too many staff in the early days,

and we were up against two very big players in the market.

We needed patents to protect ourselves from those two large companies who

could copy our ideas and use their existing might to block us out from the market.

Patents also work for small growing businesses.