Know your market

Maybe there is an addendum to Warhol's 15 minutes of fame quip for the globalized era where we will be counterfeited in Asia at least once. At least we can hope so.

I think of it as a sign of real accomplishment, to be good enough to have your copyright violated. If they want to see any of my product (such as it is) on the street, feel free.

Back in the fall I wrote about seeing my friend's wife's independent film for sale on the pirated DVD tables. Just a day ago I saw another friend's film for sale on a table in Sinchon. This was an obscure film with a specific target audience not common in Korea (it is a comedy about bar mitzvahs) so what buying public the Korean pirate community is copying films for is a mystery to me. But my friend was excited--he told me to look for his new film, which would make a whole lot more sense. No dice so far.

A friend of ours who works for a major brand name in the US came through town on business and we spent a while talking about counterfeiting. I just sent her this picture of a table of very high quality ripoffs of her company's goods.



The practice at universities here is not to order books for classroom use but to order book for copying purposes. I have not seen any students carrying printed (as opposed to copied) books. In fact, when I brought some of my own books over the library to place on reserve for the class I was told that it was better for the students if I could bring them to the copy center, nobody wants to have to deal with the hassle of reserves. This I understand.

Each building on campus has a privately run copy center with a harried man inside madly running off copies (nothing is self serve, including for faculty). They do an incredible job of copying and rebinding books, including glossy covers, high quality paper, and a couple textured end pages. It is basically a publishing house. I have had several faculty members recommend to me to have the copy center copy books from the library of great import or expense--you'll never be able to get such fine copies made in the states, they say, here it is a form of art. And they are right--in many cases the copied books are nicer than the originals, especially the bindings, which are flexible and strong. (of course, I am only describing these things, having not firsthand knowledge of copyright violation).

Here is a whole store dedicated to mountaineering gear.



Here is a great hair salon facade that I think qualifies as a pirated logo, though the afro kind of changes the image.

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