Agenda’s Index: The Real Price of Fake Goods

Joana Melo | Jan 13, 2012 10:00 am | 5 comments | 2467 reads

90%: Percentage of pirated movies, music and software sold in China (percentage in the mid 2000s)

Between $19 billion and $24 billion: estimated market value of pirated and counterfeit goods produced in China in the year 2003.

$16 billion: estimation of how much counterfeiting and piracy costs to the original companies

2.4 million Jobs: would be created if piracy was eliminated worldwide. Along with $400 billion in economic activity and $67 billion in tax revenues (study from the Business Software Alliance)

$176 billion: was the value of pirated products worldwide in 2006 (study by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD)

10 million: number of foreigner shoppers, a year, that stock up on fake Rolexes, DVD’s and others, at the Beijing Silk Street Market (Washington Post)

Check out Agendabeijing.com for more information and stats on the piracy costs of music, movies and software.

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new_here's picture new_here Submitted by Guest on Sun, 01/15/2012 - 09:19

Great comments. However I would point out that Beijingruud1 needs to get out more if he thinks that fake DVDs are only sold at these three locations. Together they probably represent much less than 1% of sales of fake DVDs. They are everywhere, even at the supermarket.

johnnybigstar's picture johnnybigstar Submitted by Guest on Sat, 01/14/2012 - 19:48

Nope, I gotta agree with the 1st two posters... this is nothing about ethics or right and wrong, it's all about politics.. the politics of the rich getting richer!　I've previously seen stats of just how many people are supporting themselves in this industry in China..if the pirating industry collapsed literally millions wouldn't be able to feed their families.. not saying that makes it right..but i'm saying don't confuse the issue...and do some real research!

Take this example: Companies like LV say the sales of fakes decreases their sales and hurts their business...bullshit... people don't choose to buy the fakes for any other reason than that they can't afford the real ones.. so even if someone buys a fake purse, it's not come at the cost of a real purse sale.. either way LV's not getting that sale.. and you can bet that just as soon as the girl buying the fake ones has enough money she'll rush right out to buy the real thing...
... I think there's a very real arguement that the sales of fake goods SUPPORTS the real ones.. it creates brand awareness and desireability so as soon as these people get money they'll buy themselves the real thing. nobody chooses to buy fake over real, it's just based on your financial situation...
I've bought girls purses at xiushui before and they loved them... but if there weren't a xiushui I still wouldn't have bought them a real one...and recently as money was getting better and I felt more secure i bought my wife a real LV bag.. her first ever and my first ever buying one.. it felt good and LV did make thousands outta me..but if they fake market had never built their reputation my wife might never have wanted a real one.. LV should be thanking XiuSHui for all their free promotions because without it, there wouldn't be such a demand for the real ones in China!

Beijingruud1's picture Beijingruud1 Submitted by Guest on Fri, 01/13/2012 - 15:06

Bluefish, good comment.

Is is sad to see we can not legally buy movies etc. technically this still does not give us the right to buy copied stuff but alas.

It is however very sad to see that the default shopping windows for fake stuff such as the Silk Market, Pearl Market and Yashow continue to be allowed to sell fake/copied/pirated goods.

Really, how difficult of a task is it to shut down 3 stores.

A "how to guide" for our BJ government:
- Come unannounced
- Close all exits and entrances
- Let customers out in an "orderly fashion" of course confiscating any copied purchases
- Empty shop for shop
- Have labels etc removed by the shop owners in exchange for lower jail time
- Send the clothing to some poor areas (do not burn them, it really is a waste of the energy that went into making them, saves some pollution of which we have enough already)
- Repeat bi-weekly by role of the dice

This would help China a bit with improving their tarnished image regarding copying. Any tourist would come back with "there is no copied stuff in China".

Of course would come at the expense of some people related to some owners of some shopping malls.

HuanChu's picture HuanChu Submitted by Guest on Fri, 01/13/2012 - 13:34

Exactly! Well said BlueFish.

I have a major issue with these kind of bullshit 'piracy loss' figures, for all the reasons you have just listed.

I have a PlayStation 3, and unlike the majority of gamers in China, I buy the real games, because number one I want to support the developers, and number two I want to be able to play online.

But BluRays are different. I don't have the option of being able to buy real BR's anywhere in Beijing. What's most scandalous is that companies like Sony sell their BluRay players officially in this country, even though they know it's next to impossible to find real discs for them. If you ask a member of staff in a Sony store where you can get discs for the players they sell, they will just look at you blankly and shake their heads.

So yeah, give me a choose, and I won't buy pirated things. But without other options, piracy will happen. And as is, these companies have no right nor grounds to complain about piracy. Get off your asses and complain to the WTO about China not allowing easier sales of your goods Hollywood, not about customers who would buy your stuff if they had a chance!

A very smart man wrote:
Remember, the courage to be wrong is paramount in importance to the ability to be right.

bluefish's picture bluefish Submitted by Guest on Fri, 01/13/2012 - 11:50

Not to bring down the collective sarcasm of holier-than-thou's, but where's the proof? For one thing, these stats seem to assume that if people in China couldn't buy pirated goods, they would go buy real ones. That's not at all true. The majority couldn't possibly afford the real ones. Then, the stats themselves are questionable. Let's just take this one:

"$250 million: how much the six major Hollywood lose in sales per year."

Maybe I don't know anything about it, but isn't the cost of piracy that people pay pirates for fake goods instead of paying the original company for real ones? So explain to me how Hollywood is losing money on movies in China. They don't sell their movies and DVD's in China–both because the government only allows a handful to be shown, and because the few legitimate outlets that sell a bare minimum of legit Hollywood movies charge way more than the average Beijinger is able to afford for a movie. If one goes online in Beijing–to legitimate sites–to try and purchase or rent a movie, those sites tell you that your "region" is not supported. That's not China's government blocking things: that's the movie industry's choice not to allow their movies to be sold and rented to the Chinese.

So if Hollywood doesn't sell their movies here, how are they losing money by Chinese pirates making those movies available? It's not a choice between pirated stuff and real stuff. There's no choice at all.

I'm not saying that there aren't other issues with piracy! There are the physical dangers inherent to everyone involved in that sordid underground business. There are international trade issues and problems with China not keeping it's end of bargains with the international community. There's the issue of Chinese pirates selling their stuff in places where the real thing actually is available. But I'm always confused about how this sob story about the poor Hollywood film makers losing all this money is supposed to be such a strong reason for people in Beijing not to buy pirated DVD's. Explain to the foreign community where they can buy legal copies of Hollywood movies (post 1960's, please) and I'm confident they would mostly respond. But no one is ever going to succeed by insisting that everyone just give up movies and TV entirely, because pirated ones are the only ones available.

(Before you all descend; I use a vpn to connect to trick iTunes and Amazon into thinking I'm in the States, and hence legally rent or buy movies. But not everyone can afford to do that, and not everyone can be expected to be willing to wait 2 days to watch a movie while it downloads at 5kb a second.)

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