Opinions needed please.
What is the anarchist viewpoint on the trade in counterfeit/fake goods?
Selling fake clothes, make up, jewelry, c.d's, video's etc. Would you regard it as small time capitalism or anarchism in a primative form?
Thanks in advance.
Depends on the quality!
I have no problem with the big film corporations (for example) being ripped off by pirate DVDs. Anyone who is aware of the criticisms of capitalist production can apply those some critiques, with bells on, to the trade in jewellry, CDs, make up etc
I do have a problem however with the quality of the DVDs currently being sold from pub to pub by Chinese hawkers in Hackney - its a fiver down the drain! Clearly counterfeitting is just another part of capitalism, albeit a junior one!
Politically there are a lot of historical issues surrounding counterfeiting of goods. Governments do it as well. Big business does it all the time. The post war Japanese economic explosion certainly involved the direct copying of many Western goods, in breach of copyright and patent. There is a famous black and white interview of Robin Day interviewing a Japanese industrialist who persistently denies this, only for Day to produce two virtually identical items from his pocket, one made in the UK and one in Japan. Needless to say the Japanese "copy" was significantly cheaper.
During the Cold War, both powers would be obsessed with stealing technology off one another, then copying whatever they were able to steal. The Soviets, arguably behind the Americans in the technology stakes, allegedly stole much of their nuclear technology from the Yanks. Sounds like counterfeiting to me!