据称，去年美国海关和边防检查部门截获的山寨产品中，有84%来自中国大陆或香港，中国甚至因此被称为制造山寨货的“狂野西部”。山寨货不仅严重损害了商家的利益，而且给消费者的权益和人身安全带来了严重隐患。
 Beats耳机真品与山寨货对比视频截图。
“你认为哪个是真的Beats耳机，哪个是山寨货？”这是英国少年杰克•吉尔伯特在一段视频里的旁白。他在YouTube的TechFusions频道发布了这段视频，Beats耳机就是说唱歌星Dr. Dre戴的那种非常昂贵的耳机。吉尔伯特和这段视频里的嘉宾最后总结说，这两款耳机看起来几乎一模一样。
视频中黑色的那个耳机价值430美元，它也深受勒布朗•詹姆斯和贾斯汀•比伯等明星的喜爱。另一个白色的耳机只值90美元。对于总价值可能高达480亿美元的“山寨机海”来说，它只能算是其中的一滴水罢了。
山寨是一个全球性的问题，而且这个问题已经存在很多年了。但是科技的发展使这个问题愈演愈烈，而且严重恶化，背后原因可管窥一斑。在那段视频结尾，吉尔伯特和另一个主持人对那些想买正版Beats耳机的人警告说，尽量不要在eBay上购买。
科技的发展使卖山寨产品的商家有了理直气壮要高价的机会，同时互联网也使山寨产品的销售变得更容易了。打造一个貌似口碑不错的网站是件很容易的事，这是在纽约运河街卖手机和苹果配件的商家永远都不能比的。而且有些“克隆”网站也经常让消费者上当，让他们以为自己以很低的价钱买到了正品。
纽约城市大学（City University of New Yor）的教授艾伦•齐默尔曼曾经撰写过大量关于山寨产品的文章，他指出：“山寨是一个非常暴利的行业。可以以很低的成本进入这个行业，而且就算哪天被抓住了，受罚的成本与其它违法行为相比也是很低的。”他还表示，海关和边检部门几乎无法阻止山寨的泛滥。根据齐默尔曼的计算，全球海关部门大概只截货了所有进口山寨商品的十分之一。
在去年美国海关和边防检查部门截获的山寨产品中，有84%来自中国大陆或香港。经常帮助各大品牌打击山寨产品的律师路易斯•费欧彻鲍姆把中国称为生产山寨商品的“狂野西部”，并表示中国政府没有持续地打击山寨产品，保护知识产权。
随着技术的推陈出新，许多之前的型号也渐渐过时，那么各大品牌是否还有必要花时间打击已经过时的山寨产品？对于这个问题，费欧彻鲍姆认为：“这个问题并不因为出了一款新产品就不存在了。”首先，山寨厂商的动作也很快。最近他的一个客户打算推出一款新产品，但正品尚未推出，山寨货就已经上市了。另外许多公司在销售新品的同时，也会继续折价销售老款产品。因此，费欧彻鲍姆说：“山寨给各大品牌带来的损害一直存在。”他还表示，山寨产品还可能使消费者面临潜在危险，比如电池爆炸或其它原因引起的火灾都是常见风险。
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| "We want to know what you think is the real or the replica Beats," says the voice off camera, belonging to Jack Gilbert, a British teen hosting a segment on his YouTube channel, TechFusions. He's talking about Beats by Dr. Dre luxury headphones. Gilbert and his co-host conclude that they look almost identical.
The black pair on screen goes for $430 and is worn by the likes of LeBron James and Justin Bieber. The other is white, costs $90 and is part of a $48 billion problem.
Counterfeiting is a global issue and has been for years. Technology has just made it worse, much worse. And here's a clue as to why. Gilbert and his co-host sign off with a warning to viewers that want to buy a real pair -- avoid buying on eBay (EBAY). "That's a massive mistake lots of people make. Because a lot of the time they think it's real, but actually, they're not," says Gilbert.
Technology has given counterfeiters the ability to make convincing electronic rip-offs -- fast -- while the Internet has made it easier to buy counterfeit products. Websites can be made to look reputable in a way that a sleazy middleman selling Air Phones and Apple-a-likes on Canal Street never could. And doppelganger websites frequently dupe customers into thinking they're getting the real deal, even at a fraction of the price.
"It's a very profitable business," says Alan Zimmerman, a professor at The City University of New York who's written extensively about the impact of counterfeit goods on companies and the economy. "You can get into business at very low cost, and the penalties if you get caught are very small compared to other illegal activities." He adds that it's almost impossible for Customs and Border Protection to stop the problem. Zimmerman has calculated that customs agencies worldwide seize approximately one-tenth of one percent of total imports.
Eighty-four percent of counterfeit goods seized by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in 2012 came from China or Hong Kong. Louis Feuchtbaum, a lawyer who helps brands fight fakes, refers to China as the "wild west for manufacturing counterfeit products." He describes a government that fails to consistently deter counterfeits and enforce intellectual property rights.
With new innovations rendering previous models obsolete, should brands spend their time fighting outdated counterfeits? "The problem doesn't go away merely because there's a new product," says Feuchtbaum. For one thing, counterfeiters act fast. One of his clients recently had a product counterfeited before it even went onto the market. Older products also often remain in the supply chain as companies continue to sell different versions, with the older model at a discount. "Then there's the everlasting damage done to brands by counterfeits," he says, adding that fakes also put consumers in physical danger. He cites exploding batteries and other fire hazards as common risks..
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虽然数码产品的山寨市场规模很庞大，但还是比不上进入美国的山寨服饰。在2012年美国查获的所有山寨商品中，服饰所占的比重达到29%，电子产品只占15%。福德汉姆大学（Fordham University）时尚法律与知识产权教授苏珊•斯卡菲迪指出，山寨服饰的比重之所以超过山寨数码产品，原因很简单：“仿造一款手机需要的技术仍然比仿造一个手提包复杂。”
有的山寨产品是在合法工厂里生产的，他们用“三班倒”的模式大量生产，然后等到合法产品生产完之后，就趁没人的时候把山寨产品从后门运走。也有些山寨产品纯粹是在与原产品没有任何关系的地下工厂里生产的。而且如今的消费者也越来越好骗了，其中一个原因就是互联网更容易使这些产品看起来像合法产品，而不是地摊货。另一个原因就是山寨产品的确很难分辨。
斯卡菲迪说：“服装公司和数码产品企业要采取的措施差不多。”她提到了商标的重要性，同时表示在向工厂下单的时候一定要非常小心，另外还要教会海关人员如何识别山寨货。
虽然各大品牌和政府机构为打击山寨使尽了浑身解数，但是消灭山寨就像要杀死一条九头蛇一样困难。奥克利眼镜公司（Oakley）品牌保护副总裁艾德里安•庞得森表示，服装饰品行业的第一道防线就是从源头上打击山寨厂商。他认为一旦山寨产品进入“商业流”，要打击它就要多花100倍的时间。他表示，去年奥克利公司和中国政府基本上每天都要突袭一家山寨工厂，但是现在无论在哪个大洲，奥克利公司每天照样还会查获大量中国造的山寨眼镜。
庞得森说：“他们的运作方式跟贩毒网络差不多。”厂商会把产品的生产分散到好几个工厂，所以如果其中一家被抓了，其他工厂仍然平安无事。一旦产品生产好了，就会立即出货。同时庞得森认为，贸易批发商们也愿意承担储存和运输这些货物的风险，所以他们也会获得不菲的收益。
山寨产品的运输网络已经扩展到了全世界。庞德森表示，奥克利公司的调查人员曾经在墨西哥南部城市阿卡普尔科见过10到15个山寨奥克利眼镜。他们顺藤摸瓜，追查到了巴拿马的一家委内瑞拉籍和一家哥伦比亚籍的借壳公司，这些借壳公司最远会把货运到墨西哥和委内瑞拉。
庞德森还指出，要想打击仿冒Beats耳机和奥克利眼镜的山寨产品还需要不菲的人力成本。他说：“世界上任何一个政府都不可能允许一家合法工厂那样运营，也不会允许工人在那样的条件下工作——那真是非常可怕。”(财富中文网)
译者：朴成奎
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| Despite the scale of the problem, there still seem to be fewer fake electronics than fake clothes and accessories reaching the U.S. Apparel and handbags represented 29% of all items seized in 2012 while 15% were electronics. Susan Scafidi, a professor in fashion law and intellectual property at Fordham University, says that the quantity of seized fashion goods still outstrips electronics for a simple reason: "It still takes more skill to craft a cellphone than to craft a handbag," says Scafidi.
Knock-offs tend to be made in either a registered factory that makes them on the "third shift" after the legitimate product is made, shipping the counterfeits out the back door when no one is looking. Or then there's the purely clandestine factory that has no relation to the original product. Customers these days are also more easily duped, partly because the Internet gives items legitimacy more easily than a sale on a street corner would, and partly because they're harder to detect.
"The measures that an apparel company has to take and an electronics company has to take are very similar," says Scafidi. She mentions the importance of trademarks, being careful when drawing up agreements with factories, and educating customs officials to spot fakes.
Despite the best efforts of brands and officials, catching counterfeits is like slaying a hydra. Adrian Punderson, Vice President of Oakley Brand Protection says the apparel and accessories company's first line of defense is to attack production facilities. He estimates that once fakes get into the "stream of commerce" it costs approximately 100 times more to stop being sold. Yet Punderson says that during 2012, Oakley and Chinese officials raided a clandestine factory almost every other day. Despite that, the company is still making large seizures of counterfeit sunglasses from China, in locations on every continent.
"They operate pretty much like you would see in a narcotics network," says Punderson. He says that manufacturers spread production between several factories, so if one gets raided the rest of the stash will still be intact. Once the goods are ready, they're immediately moved out. According to him, wholesalers are now the ones willing to take the risk of storing goods and moving them around, so they also have a larger share of the reward and the power.
The network itself stretches across the world. Punderson describes how an Oakley investigator saw 10-15 pairs of counterfeit sunglasses in Acapulco, Mexico. They traced them back to a Venezuelan and a Columbian front company in Panama, which were shipping goods as far as Mexico and Venezuela.
As always, there's a human cost to getting fake Beats headphones and Oakley Sunglasses at rock bottom prices. Says Punderson, "There's no way that any government in the world would allow a legitimate factory to operate that way -- in the conditions these people work in -- it's pretty frightening."
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