Just got word that China customs is making intense examinations on exports for counterfeit "Beijing 2008 Olympics" bootleg products.

Well that goes hand in hand with limiting foreigners by visa restrictions from their
multi billion dollar party. I hope they keep up this new policy of restricting the
flow of illegal products and give back a few jobs to those who have lost do to rampant counterfeiting.

Right on! ^

Well, I am happy to say that I bought a counterfeit Beijing 2008 baseball cap in Yangshuo last year for 20 RMB, and a counterfeit Beijing T-shirt XXL size, for 25 RMB. They are both holding up nicely.

I hope they allow the alternatively licensed product businesses to start up again as soon as the Olympics finish. China owes the west nothing when it comes to so called intellectual property rights and should allow it's companies to compete with western companies more openly and with greater protection from the racist imperial laws of the u.s.

As I understand it, each host country is the copyright holder of its own Olympic games. Meaning, China is the IP holder of Beijing 2008 and enforcing it themselves.

China is perfectly capable of enforcing IPR when it suits its purposes. Example: after dragging its feet for years on the pirated DVD/CD issues, claiming it was all just too difficult and would take time, in the last few weeks, it's amazing how about 95% of the fake DVD sellers and products have vanished from the streets of Beijing. For now.

Yeh

Tell me you have never bought a bootleg DVD, watch or whatever during a visit to China or Asia?

Btw I actually bought a real Beijing 2008 Olympic logo backpack at Summer Palace kiosk, paid about RMB300 last November...LOL.

I think you've overpaid. I was offered one (baseball cap) in Beijing for about
6 RMB (down from 30RMB), But I didn't buy.

Nothing that I know of. Although I've bought a lot of things from
there, but nothing that had any brand names on them.

A few Olympic related merchandise I bought were from an official
Olympic outlet.

From Head to Toe

Cap: Ed Hardy
Sun Glasses: Oakley
Dress Shirt: Marc Jacobs
TShirt: Christian Audigier
Tie: Hermes
Belt and Buckle Squared
Jeans: True Religion
Wallet: LV
Underwear: Calvin Klein
Socks: Abercrombie & Fitch
Shoes: Air Jordan
Watch: Franck Muller
Cologne: Christian Dior
Women's Handbag: Juicy Couture
Jewelry: Tiffany


All totally legal to bring back to US as its one each of different type of item.
No DVD's though.

Happy Shopping!


** Almost Forgot: North Face Jacket for the winter!

Totally dependent upon the quality. There are poor quality knockoffs, and good ones. These were clearly well made, good ones. And both are still going strong over a year later. A $3 T-shirt that holds up in the wash is much better than a $1 T-shirt that doesn't.

I've bought Junk "Rolexes" for 50 RMB, and High Quality Patek Philippe mechanical copies for 180 RMB. The more expensive Patek Philippe copies were clearly the better deal - they work and look like the real thing.

Actually, never bought a bootleg anything in China/Asia. The local outlets sell enough bootleg DVD's as it is and I never touch the watches. Clothes? Unless we're talking t-shirts, the "cut" is always a poor facsimile of the original.

The way I figure, if you can't afford the real thing, you can't afford it.

To the untrained eye and morals, my friend...

And actually, we WERE talking T-shirts and baseball caps - the cut of the cheap copies is the same as the originals.

With respect to the rest, there are also people who CAN afford the real thing, but believe firmly that those overpriced genuine articles are simply not an appropriate expenditure of their money compared to other expenditures that do more for society. Folks who are impressed by pricey labels fully deserve to be deceived. The fact is, a $10 quartz watch performs the base function of telling time as well, if not better than a $17K mechanical Patek does. And high quality $30 counterfeit performs the base function of impressing brand snobs as well as a $17K Patek does.

I'd rather donate $17K to helping solve world hunger or disaster relief than buy an overpriced watch with the money. I'll stack my morals against the person who'd rather buy the fancy brands any time.

If you have to explain why you could buy things but you don't, you can't afford it.

The interesting thing is that a real DVD which was published by a company that actually paid for the rights to press it costs ~$3-$5. We probably have a couple hundred DVDs. In the U.S., we have 3. If U.S. media companies could drop the price on DVDs down to even $5-7 each...I bet their revenue would go through the roof.