From the NY Post:Buyers could face a year in jail or a $,1000 fine under a proposed bill by a city councilwoman fed up with cheapskate tourists and Big Apple residents flooding her district in search of fake designer merchandise.
"We don't want to be known as the place to come to get counterfeit goods," said Councilwoman Margaret Chin, whose Chinatown district is ground zero for counterfeiters.
Under Chin's bill, which is being introduced Thursday, shoppers caught buying any counterfeit product could be jailed or slapped with a fine of $1,000 -- a little less than the price of Marc Jacobs' frequently copied Baroque Quilting Mini Stam bag, which retails for $1,250.
"It's a very big problem," Chin said of the counterfeit market. "People are still coming, and the industry is growing, and we have to stop the demand. We need people to know that they are feeding this demand."
Several of Chin's colleagues have expressed support for the bill, and she already has five co-sponsors.
The punishment might seem draconian, but it's necessary to curb the growing problem, she said.
She pointed out that the money that counterfeiters rake in often funds other nefarious activities, such as terrorism and unsafe child-labor practices.
14 comments:
Sh*t ! Now I may have-ta buy my $35 Rolex's in Flushing where it stinks !
HMMMM... is it true that the chinese communist government is concerned about forced child labor and free prisoner labor and the harvesting & selling of human organs?
if they revolt ,the tanks run over them......
is china going "GREEN CRAZY", like the liberal ,environmentalists are forcing the U.S ignoramus's too?
A. Who is going to enforce this?
B. Who's paying to incarcerate someone for such a petty crime? Keeping someone in jail for a year is expensive
shoppers caught buying any counterfeit product could be jailed or slapped with a fine of $1,000
How about and stores selling counterfeit goods be jailed and fined? Stop selling this stuff and all there is in Chinatown is greasy cheap food places.
To end this counterfeit industry, Louis Vuitton and Coach ought to lower their prices and compete. The government should stay out.
I'm with Georges.
This needs to be solved on the supply side. The sellers of this crap need to go to jail and be hit with fines.
But unsurprisingly council woman from Chinatown doesn't want her constituents to go to jail. Jailing the outlaw merchants of that neighborhood would probably be seen as racist.
Prison should be used very sparingly. Otherwise we will start to resemble the society making the knockoff goods.
Doesn't Coach and the rest of them use Chinese slave labor to produce their products also? Should we be jailing Americans who want to buy the same quality products at much lower prices? Who's paying off Chin?
A. Who is going to enforce this?
B. Who's paying to incarcerate someone for such a petty crime? Keeping someone in jail for a year is expensive
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Donn't worry, I am sure the powers that be will impose hefty monetary fines in lieu of jail time. That is what this is really all about, the mayor and the city council just want their cut.
This is actually the first thing I've read related to Margaret Chin who seems to have a very hands off approach to dealing with her community outside of (apparently) Chinatown.
I'm not sure if this is the best place to put her City Council efforts. I'm sure that the small businesses of Chinatown appreciate it tho' and this gives her a chance to show them that she is doing something.
I bought a fake Mont Blanc from the Harvard Coop twenty years ago and the bar code said "Mont Blanc $8.00"
Fakes legislating fakes! Anyone else see the irony?
Maspeth Mom say....
What if you dont even realize that the name on the bag is a desinger name and you buy the bag becuase you like it.
I purchased a bag 10 years ago because I liked the bag - I didnt recognize the name at the time (Tods)- because it was so high end and out of my reach - I bought it because I liked it. How was I supposed to know? A co-worker told me the bagwas a high end label brand and that it would retail for over $2,000.00!!!
Honestly, these days it doesn't even matter. The real stuff and the fakes are all made in China... and sometimes made in the same factory!!!
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