It was very embarrassing moment for Microsoft this morning as they were caught with their hand in the proverbial IP cookie jar.  The photographer discussion boards are abuzz about a photo contest called “Iconic Britain” being run by Microsoft and sponsored by Nikon.  In the contest, Microsoft is asking visitors to vote for the 100 photos that best define Britain.  The problem is, they’ve crawled the web and grabbed thousands of copyrighted photos for use in the contest without licensing or even notifying any of the photographers and copyright holders.  The metadata has been stripped from the photos and they’ve been copied to Microsoft’s servers.  There are also no links back to the original copyright owner, effectively turning the photos into “orphan works”.

One photographer claims to have found 30 of his images used for the competition without permission and dozens of other posters are reporting similar findings for their own images.  In an apparent move to distance themselves from the potential infringement and blowback from angry photographers, Nikon has removed their logos from the competition and written personal messages to many of the photographers who have complained.  I’m thinking that this contest site may not be active for much longer… and some Microsoft employee may be updating their résumé soon.

A couple of days ago, I blogged about the growing problem of illegal product counterfeiting in our society.  In that post, I mentioned how intellectual property theft seems to be viewed as a victimless crime and thus “OK” by a large percentage of the population.  Kid Rock has just issued a timely new Public Service Announcement on this very subject, entitled “Steal Everything”:

http://showhype.com/video/kid_rock_steal_everything_psa/

Enjoy!

I saw something absolutely comical yesterday on one of those illegal replica watch websites.... a copyright notice on the website pictures and text.  Here's a company that makes its living selling illegal watches that violate the intellectual property rights of the genuine watch manufacturers and they’re trying to assert their own intellectual property rights!  After I stopped rolling on the floor laughing, I just had to send a note to their webmaster pointing out the irony.

It's surprising how few people seem to realize that fake watches are actually illegal.  Is trademark and patent law really such a well-kept secret?  Are the millions of fake watches seized and destroyed by the U.S. Customs Service not publicized well enough?  Do the dozens of replica websites raided by authorities or the replica sellers sent to jail not get noticed?  Or is it that people realize they're breaking the law, but just don't care?

Somehow, there's the misperception by the public that if a fake item is openly declared as a fake when it’s being sold, then nobody is hurt and it is OK to buy/sell replica items.  No harm, no foul. This ignores the facts that:

1. Trademark and patent laws are being broken anytime someone sells a replica watch
2. An illegal industry is being supported and this industry will supply fake products to other people who will use them to commit fraud and scam other buyers
3. The counterfeit item that is intentionally purchased by a consumer will likely re-enter the marketplace later through a yardsale or estate auction where the new owner may try to re-sell it as genuine (knowingly or unknowingly).  That new buyer gets ripped off.
4. The manufacturers who invest the money to research, design and market the famous products that we love are not being paid for their effort when look-alike counterfeits are purchased.  It is estimated that counterfeit watches cost the Swiss watch manufacturers over $700 million per year.
5. Replicas cheapen the brand image of the original merchandise.  When one realizes that 90% of the "Rolexes" seen worn in public are actually replicas, how much prestige does wearing a Rolex still carry?  Even the genuine watches are likely perceived as replicas, by most that see them.  According to estimates by the Swiss Customs Service, there are some 30 to 40 million counterfeit watches put into circulation each year
6. Replicas hurt online sales of luxury items.  Buyers can no longer safely buy watches and other luxury items on eBay and other electronic marketplaces without fear of being fraudulently sold a replica.  This hurts sellers.  This hurts buyers.  This hurts the entire watch collecting hobby.

I don't expect anything to change.  Just like the replica website manufacturer I spoke of in the opening paragraph, people don't seem to care about intellectual property rights unless it is their own intellectual property rights that are being violated.  Intellectual Property theft has become pervasive and (almost) accepted throughout our society:

·         A large percentage of the general public thinks it's OK to steals songs and videos, without paying their favorite artist or the studios

·         People seem to think nothing of copying and distributing pictures without licensing them from the original photographer or copyright owner (my wife happens to be a photographer)

·         Individuals and even large corporations frequently make and use "bootleg" copies of software without paying the companies that develop and maintain it

Sadly, it seems to be a very amoral society we're living in and I fear that it will come back to haunt us as the problem continues to grow.  Already, we're seeing poisonous counterfeit foodstuffs and medical items appearing on our grocery store shelves, counterfeit memory cards and counterfeit clothing being discovered in the inventories of our trusted large chain discount stores and dangerous counterfeit automobile parts in our local repair shops.  All of this is a direct result of our indifference to the problem of counterfeiting.  We can only blame ourselves the next time someone dies from using counterfeit toothpaste tainted with poison chemicals.  We allowed that person to die through our general apathy about the importance of intellectual property rights… all so that we could have our fake Rolex and knockoff Gucci purse.