'War' On Fake Drugs Really An Excuse To Boost Big Pharma; Putting The Poor At Risk

Patents

from the realities-of-patents dept

We’ve pointed out similar things before, but Oxfam has come out with a new report, claiming that the claims from developed nations about the need to fight “fake drugs,” is quite frequently really just an excuse to protect big pharma firms from generic competition. No one is denying that actual fake drugs can potentially be harmful. But, the problem is that the various efforts, including ACTA, to deal with the issue often lump together actual dangerous fake pharmaceuticals with drugs that are simply cheaper but perfectly safe. Oxfam would like to see a legitimate strategy for getting the real fake drugs out of the market, but says the current strategies are all about boosting patent protections, increasing prices for the poor and developing nations and better protecting big pharma against upstart competitors.

The European Union and the United States continue to focus almost exclusively on eliminating counterfeit medicines which form only a small part of this public health problem — but which are a serious concern for their multinational companies. They have used the crisis in medicine quality in developing countries as an excuse to push for new intellectual property rules that will boost the profits of pharmaceutical giants at the expense of affordable medicines for the poor.

Of course, this becomes important when you realize that ACTA was specifically designed to pressure developing nations into adopting these types of new, more stringent patent and copyright laws. Oxfam is hoping that those countries won’t be bullied:

At a time when poor countries struggle to ensure that their populations can get affordable, quality medicines it is outrageous that rich countries and drug companies are pushing ‘solutions’ that will do more harm than good to patients and public health. It is critical that poor countries ignore rich-country pressure, and focus instead on solutions that will ensure both quality and affordability of medicines.

Filed Under: acta, counterfeits, drugs, generics, health
Companies: oxfam

Author Slams 'Piracy,' Then Admits To A Huge 'Pirated' Music Collection And Counterfeit Purses

Copyright

from the hypocrites-everywhere dept

It’s kind of scary how often people, who claim to be such huge supporters of copyright, are caught infringing on copyrights when it suits them — often offering amusing rationalizations for their own actions. Torrentfreak has the somewhat hilarious story of a Norwegian author, Anne B Ragde, who was interviewed for an article about unauthorized ebook file sharing and she did the predictable thing and complained about how awful it is, saying that it’s no different from stealing and saying that “I have figured out that I’ve lost half a million kronor ($72,500) on piracy of my books, maybe more.” Later she says: “I can not stand the thought of someone stealing something.”

However, moments later, she’s asked if she’s ever bought counterfeit goods and she responds:

“Pirated handbags? Yes, I do buy them,” she said. “I feel that the genuine Prada bags have such an inflated price.”

Fascinating. One wonders how she’d respond to those who are involved in unauthorized book file sharing by claiming that the genuine products “have such an inflated price.” Her son, Jo, then apparently chimes in to help the interviewer and notes:

“You have a pirated MP3 collection,” Jo added, helpfully. “We copied the first 1500 songs from one place and 300 from another.”

“Yes,” admitted Ragde. “There were a lot of things on the iPod.”

But she just “can not stand the thought” of others doing the same to her work?

Filed Under: anne b. ragde, copying, copyright, counterfeits, hypocrisy

Yet Another Study Says Counterfeit Products Aren't Really A Problem

Studies

from the let-it-go dept

Last year, we wrote about a fascinating study that indicated that counterfeit goods very often are not a problem for the manufacturers of the legitimate goods. That was because the study found two things: (1) most consumers buying counterfeit goods weren’t being “tricked.” They knew they were buying counterfeit goods, and it actually created a lower entry point into the market; (2) as such, it actually acted as really good advertising. The study found that 46% of those who bought a counterfeit brand-name purse, went and bought the real thing within two and a half years. That came on the heels of a variety of studies and reports that showed that the claims from the industry about the supposed “harm” from counterfeiting wasn’t just overblown, but were blown so far out of proportion as to be ridiculous (though, politicians and reporters seem to have no trouble repeating such claims regularly).

It looks like we’ve got yet another study highlighting exactly the same thing — and this one coming from a guy who is an advisor to the UK government. Gautam John points us to this new bit of research by Professor David Wall which was funded by the EU, which found that counterfeiting isn’t really that big of a problem. The findings were quite similar to the study we reported on last year. It says that there’s a consumer benefit to buying knockoff designer goods, and that the “losses” claimed by companies are way out of line with reality. Furthermore, perhaps most surprisingly, the report says that law enforcement should not waste their time trying to stop the bootleggers. The report also debunks the popular claim from the industry that counterfeit goods fund terrorism and organized crime.

Now, the report focuses on designer goods — and notes that there is a real concern about potentially counterfeit pharmaceuticals (though, the industry often tries to lump generics in with counterfeits) and things like fake airplane parts. But this has always been the problem with attempts at lumping together all of these things. The actual “harm” is very different depending on what kind of products you’re talking about. The designer goods industry — and the copyright industries — have been trying to lump themselves in with things like fake drugs, to try to get everyone worked up in their favor.

So it’s nice to see a report like this specifically break it out and note that designer counterfeits aren’t a problem. In fact, the report points out that problems of lumping all these things into one category: which is that law enforcement spends less time focusing on the things that really can create harm (fake drugs and airplane parts and such) and is forced to go running after fake handbags that don’t actually damage the market.

With various governments getting ready to finalize ACTA in a few weeks, isn’t it… rather concerning that the entire basis of the agreement doesn’t appear to hold much water?

Separately, Bruce Ediger points us to a different study that tries to claim that people who have counterfeit goods are more prone to dishonesty, greed and cynicism. So, perhaps you can read into that a different kind of “harm” from counterfeit designer goods, though the design of the study itself seems a bit more suspect — and even if you believe that study, that’s never been the rationale for government action when it comes to counterfeiting.

Filed Under: counterfeits, designer brands

European Court Of Justice Finds Google Not Guilty Of Trademark Infringement In Ad Sales… But Leaves Lots Of Loopholes

Legal Issues

from the will-they-give-up-yet? dept

Various big luxury brands have been trying for years to get courts to say that Google is somehow liable for trademark infringement if it sells ads based on people doing searches on trademarked keywords. Most courts have rejected this argument — but there was one in France that accepted it and sided with LVMH (owners of brands Louis Vuitton, Moet & Hennessey, among others). That case moved up to the European Court of Justice, which had already suggested that selling ads based on trademarked keywords shouldn’t be considered infringing. I had thought, upon reading the BBC’s coverage of the final decision, that the court had strongly agreed with Google by saying that it was not guilty of trademark infringement, but it seemed odd that LVMH seemed to be claiming victory in the quote in that article, saying: “the ruling clarified the rules of online advertising.”

Looking at other coverage of the ruling, it appears the BBC’s explanation leaves out many of the important details. While it’s true that the court found that Google was not guilty, it did say that Google needs to remove ads when companies complain and that national courts can set their own rules on this topic. It’s not a complete win for either party, but it does seem to give more control to big brands to block perfectly legitimate advertising.

Filed Under: advertising, counterfeits, trademarks

Good Surprise: French Court Actually Sides With eBay On Counterfeiting Liability

Legal Issues

from the getting-it-right dept

While US courts have generally been good about recognizing that eBay is not liable for eBay users selling counterfeit goods on the site, France in the past had gotten the story backwards, saying that eBay was liable, even though the actions were by its users, not by eBay itself. However, in a rather surprising move, a French court has actually sided with eBay against L’Oreal in a similar case. This is a surprise — but a good one. This is L’Oreal’s second loss in such cases against eBay. It lost another such case in nearby Belgium — but (of course) has also filed similar lawsuits around the globe, hoping that at least one of those courts will side with it over eBay. Hopefully, all of them take notice of how both Belgium and France have ruled, and recognize that this is not eBay’s liability.

Filed Under: counterfeits, france, liability, trademark
Companies: ebay, l'oreal

Software Industry Assocation About To Learn What Safe Harbors Mean

Legal Issues

from the if-you-want-to-waste-your-money,-go-right-ahead... dept

It appears that the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) is about to learn what DMCA safe harbors mean. The group is apparently upset about the fact that some people sell counterfeit software on eBay. That’s not surprising. But, the SIIA is planning to sue eBay for this activity, rather than going after the counterfeiters themselves. Of course, if anyone from the SIIA had been paying attention, they would know that courts in the US have repeatedly found that eBay and sites like it are protected by various safe harbor provisions. This is for a very good reason: it’s not eBay counterfeiting anything. eBay is merely the platform. If the SIIA wants to go after the actual counterfeiters, that’s their issue. But going after eBay for providing the platform is going to fail miserably. You would think that a trade group that claims they cover the “Information Industry” would know that already.

Filed Under: auctions, copyright, counterfeits, dmca, liability, safe harbors, siia
Companies: ebay, siia

Attorney General Mukasy Claims Piracy Funds Terrorism

Say That Again

from the oh-please dept

We had assumed that former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ sudden facsination with “piracy” was as a way to avoid dealing with the controversy surrounding his office — but it appears his successor is heading down that path as well. In a speech given today in Silicon Valley, Attorney General Michael Mukasey gave a fear mongering speech about how piracy and counterfeiting fosters terrorism. This is a line (literally) straight from the RIAA training manual, which it appears Mukasey has bought into. It should come as no surprise to hear that Mukasey flew up to Silicon Valley after spending a day in Hollywood at Warner Brothers.

Still, what’s most interesting is that he doesn’t seem to indicate much of a difference between merely copying content and “counterfeiting,” which would be passing off a fake good as a legitimate one. Counterfeiting is more akin to “trademark” in that it’s really about customer protection (making sure you’re not buying Bob’s Cola thinking that it’s Coca Cola). It’s understandable to be upset about counterfeiting — but the problem is that two separate impartial government agencies have both found that counterfeiting isn’t that big a problem, and it’s regularly exaggerated by lobbyists.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that any of these nuances have made it to the AG’s office. Instead, he’s just lumped all piracy and counterfeiting issues into one single category and labeled it all a big problem and linked it to “terrorism” so that no one questions it. And rather than assigning more Justice Department officials to work on real problems and real crimes, he’s been beefing up the “IP” group, increasing prosecutions 33% in the last couple of years. Is this really the best use of our taxpayer money?

Filed Under: counterfeits, michael mukasey, piracy, terrorism

China's Counterfeit Behavior Is Actually A Copy… Of 19th Century America

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the imitation-is-the-sincerest-form-of-flattery dept

China’s capitalistic missteps are ablaze in the headlines lately. Tales such as those about poisonous toothpaste and counterfeit Harry Potter books strike fear into our hearts that our most favored nation may be going too far when embracing the very capitalist ideals that we have been trying to instill in them since the cold war. China has been painted as a nation of unscrupulous money grabbers, eager to make a quick buck without concern for any consequences. However, let’s not be too quick to judge, lest we forget our own past. China’s brash brand of capitalism is merely a normal step along the way of a developing capitalist economy — a step that the US also went through in the 19th century. It wasn’t long ago that American businesses ran amuck without regulation. Candy was found to contain arsenic, custard laced with lead, and as made famous by Upton Sinclair, lard contained traces of the occasional human. Back then, counterfeiters were notorious, giving rise to the term “snake-oil salesmen.” There is a silver lining to this story, of course. Just as the US was able to grow out of this adolescent stage of capitalism, so will China, but, kids will be kids, and they need to get a few bumps and bruises along the way before they learn their lesson and change.

Filed Under: china, counterfeits