Major Piracy

[epicstruggle]

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/04/27/business/nec.php

After two years and thousands of hours of investigation in conjunction with law enforcement agencies in China, Taiwan and Japan, the company said it had uncovered something far more ambitious than clandestine workshops turning out inferior copies of NEC products. The pirates were faking the entire company.

NEC said about 50 products were counterfeited, including home entertainment systems, MP3 players, batteries, microphones and DVD players.
Many of these pirated items were not part of the genuine NEC product range.
The investigation also revealed that fake goods from these factories were on sale in Taiwan, mainland China, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, North Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
In some cases, they were being sold alongside legitimate NEC products in retail outlets.

epic

 

[DudeMiester]

Evidence seized in raids on 18 factories and warehouses in China and Taiwan over the past year showed that the counterfeiters had set up what amounted to a parallel NEC brand with links to a network of more than 50 electronics factories in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

This must have been closing in on a billion dollar operation! Incredible! Perhaps, one of the biggest piracy rings in history.

 

[digitalwanderer]

I do not approve or condone piracy for profit in any way/shape/form, that's just evil.

Glad they caught these guys, hope they catch lots more.

 

[_xxx_]

[H] posted an article about fake iPods a few days ago, pretty funny stuff.

 

[Fruitfrenzy]

It seems slightly strange that they go to so much effort to copy NEC. If they just changed the brand name on their products they could have a legitimate business.

 

[K.I.L.E.R]

Are these people pirating my maths work?

 

[KimB]

It seems slightly strange that they go to so much effort to copy NEC. If they just changed the brand name on their products they could have a legitimate business.

Well, then they may still have to deal with patent infringement. I doubt they developed these products fully on their own steam.