Knockoff World

Case Study – “It’s a Knockoff World”
The case study “It’s a Knockoff World” describes the increasingly widespread issue of piracy throughout the world. Piracy, which at a basic level involves copying someone else’s work without permission, can happen to anything and everything. Daniels, Radebaugh and Sullivan describe how “... if it is being made, it is being faked” (125).The cost of making fake products is far less expensive than creating the real thing. Fueling this illegal market are the low productions costs and high profitability from selling knock-off products. Piracy is seen everywhere, however Mexico is one of the top offenders on the piracy list. In fact, many major studios have banned shipping their products there (Daniels, Radebaugh…show more content…
For example, in 2011 Sony patented an anti-piracy system that automatically measures standard load times for their legitimate video games against the load times for pirated video games, allowing their gaming systems to only play programs that fall within a specified range ("Sony Anti-Piracy Patent Published”). Daniels, Radebaugh and Sullivan also describe how many organizations “‘lawyer-up’…and file lawsuits against illegal sellers” (126). Hollywood movie studios have been known to file “…hundreds of copyright infringement lawsuits…against people they allege are illegally distributing feature films online, a hard-line tactic that mirrors the anti-piracy efforts of the recording industry” (Hernandez). Other tactics include actively monitoring online retail outlets, using radio frequency identification chips to track products and the inclusion of special codes on packaging so that cautious consumers can validate whether or not a product is pirated (Daniels, Radebaugh and Sullivan 126). Government support in the fight against piracy, especially on the international stage, is often viewed as both positive and necessary. There are certain circumstances in which government assistance actually has the potential to make the war against piracy more difficult however. For example, many totalitarian governments tend to create…show more content…
International Business Environments and Operations. 14th. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Prentice Hall, 2013. Book.
Greg, Hernandez. "Hollywood Movie Studios To File Hundreds Of Piracy Suits." Daily News (Los Angeles, CA) (n.d.): Newspaper Source. Web. 20 Jan. 2014. <http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.maryville.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nfh&AN=2W64167066916&site=ehost-live>.
"Sony Anti-Piracy Patent Published." Managing Intellectual Property 228 (2013): 122. Business Source Premier. Web. 20 Jan. 2014. <http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.maryville.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=86958054&site=ehost-live>.
WIPO - World Intellectual Property Organization. “Inside WIPO.” World Intellectual Property Organization. n.d. Web. 20 January 2014. <http://www.wipo.int/about-wipo/en/index.html>.
WTO - World Trade Organization. "Intellectual property: protection and enforcement." World Trade Organization. 2014. Web. 20 January 2014.