and in the shops a week later.
Designers copy from eachother. Look at the the hardware this past season on almost every couture bag.
They all make the same colrs in seasonal collctions.
I own designer bags I love because of the workmanship and style but I don't care if there's a fake. I don't understand the designers complaining if they know their bags are well made and should be flattered that they are imitated,
I went to a party, a woman was wearing the same dress but mine I bought in Filene's basement which meant way-y-y less expensive. She shunned me, looked embarrassed. I walked up to her and said: I like your taste and walked away.

From personal experience, it's not good for business when you hear or read "suchNsuch brand" is not worth the money or you receive letters saying "Bought one of you items and it was a piece of junk".

True(but from another mimi)
A fake dosn't hurt them. They know it's a fake because at their prices it should stand up or shame on them.
Now take Coach, they mak them in China but get the Italian and French prices. That's a poor investment.

There's a world of difference between counterfeit money-which is a federal crime because the production of same has immediate deleterious effects on governmental operations that affect the production of currency, as well as the economy at large, and a private luxury goods company who charges exorbitant rates for handbags, where copies are made -the latter is not a governmental operation- and it does not in any way affect the economy the way large scale counterfeit money operations do-the two operations simply aren't comparable. But it does have an impact on the profits of the private company who makes the originals. There will always be fakes-and they are sold in stores all over the US, and out on the streets as well, and nobody says a word about it here.

And CB, you are dead wrong about the quality-even the experts will tell you that, in some of the factories in China, the well-made fake designer bags, with tags and everything, are very difficult to spot from the real thing-other than the price-the quality can be first-rate.

I personally don't get why everyone gets so excised about it-there are copies of designer gowns, as soon as they come out on the runway, yet NO ONE says a word about that! Why not? What's the difference between copies of designer bags and copies of designer gowns, huh?

Gypsy, my post above was chopped. I said we send illustrators to the collections and they return and the designs are put into production right away, appearing on TV, the next day, like after the Acadamy awards, and in stores a week later.

One reason designers ask exorbitant rates is that they offer high quality, original and desirable items. It's a marketing method known as "Make hay while the sun shines". Designers know there will be cheap knock offs asap. When knock offs are seen everywhere that's the end of the model. They mostly want to protect the brand name which knock offs can and do hurt.

In almost every big city in the world illegal street vendors (without city permits) sell illegal fake goods (but so bad they don't - or shouldn't - fool anyone) on the streets.

When they see police coming they roll up the blanket everything is displayed on and walk away.

In NYC the police are usually content to move them along (not chase or try to arrest them). But, every once in a while they have crackdowns - due to complaints from store owners (they're paying high rents and the illegal vendors are selling at lower prices in front of their stores), pedestrians (sometimes it's so crowded you fall over them) and legal street vendors (with lic and position assigned by the city).

Being familiar with this I would have assumed the African men running away were vendors (I understand Italy is cracking down on this) and would have done nothing - since it's not my country or my business.

I don't know why the tourist assumed they were thieves (well I might) but in any case - it only makes sense not to get between cops and people they are chasing. A tourist doesn't know the situation or the risks.

This is a completely different situation that seeing someone actually being hurt or threatened - or a person in the act of stealing something - when you might want to intervene.

It is commendable to try to help. He made a reasonable, though incorrect, conclusion. It didn't hurt anything.

Seems odd to me that the only Africans I ever saw were selling bags. They were quite friendly fellows.

...strongly object to using public money to protect Hollywood's copyright...

That's an odd position for a law enforcement officer. Why is "Hollywood," a lawful business that employs many people and contributes to the tax base, not entitled to protection under the law? Because you don't "like" their product?

By coincidence I recently spoke with a director at the Chanel company about this topic, as on my way to her I saw the famous "C" on the famous quilted bags sold in the street by the subway. She told of the great effort the company puts into protecting its trademark worldwide and how cheap production techniques using inferior materials dilute the line. No matter what you think about their "overpriced crap" they have successfully developed their international brand over decades and they respect their designers and artisans. They have a right to own their logo.

Someone kill me: I think I agree with Girlspy!!!

There is an excellent film about two brothers from...a North African country, I think...who attempt to make the dangerous trek to Europe hidden as cargo in a truck. The younger ends up on the streets of Italy, trying to sell some kind of crap merchandise. A beautiful, painful film depicting people who lead very, very hard lives. I wish I could recall the title.

I hate it when I read a report here saying "Rome is ruined; there are just so many Aficans trying to sell cheap bags in front of all the beautiful statues." An, um, interesting perspective.

If you want cheap bags, come to NYC and visit Chinatown. It a lot of fun when they take you to their secret stores and rooms!

Fakes are not the only things being sold on the street. Another is stolen goods - at least in NYC. We once had a small box of things stolen as we took stuff from our car into my daughter's apartment, but we couldn't grab the box away from the thieves. That night, our stuff was for sale, spread out on a blanket right on the sidewalk in front of our daughter's apartment building. The thieves quickly gathered up their blanket and ran when they saw us.

I've also seen beautiful, high quality, hand made, artist's brushes, etc. being sold only a block or two from an art suppy store I frequent in NYC. Some still had the store labels and were not fakes.

Buying this kind of stolen stuff supports a criminal lifestyle.

The biggest problem we had with the "purse pushers" in Venice, was their agressive manner. We actually saw one of them with long dreadlocks chasing after a couple and outright harassing the man to buy one of the purses for the woman. The couple finally veered off down an alley to ditch the guy. Nobody needs an experience like that to spoil their vacation or evening.

I told hubby the man should punch the purse pusher out, and if he came near me, I surely would! He stayed away from us, lol!

That little episode was when I lost all sympathy for the African purse vendors in Venice. Some of them set out their blanket right around the corner from the genuine Gucci store, which couldn't have gone over big. All of them were well dressed, in nice stylish jeans and tennis shoes, except for a few in more traditional colorful African flowing clothing. Either they were making decent money, or their jeans and shoes were fakes too!

<i>Leely wrote: I hate it when I read a report here saying &quot;Rome is ruined; there are just so many Aficans trying to sell cheap bags in front of all the beautiful statues.&quot; An, um, interesting perspective.</i>

I can only agree.

While it is one thing to buy fake merchandise from those vendors (which I do not), it is another thing to show at least some compassion for their possible background.

Italy definetely has its share of the problem of illegal immigrants coming across the Mediterranean Sea, often in nutshells, often killing themselves.
Most of our &quot;problems&quot; (e.g. hand bags) seem to pale in comparison.

I think that the reaction of the people in those sidewalk cafes in Venice showed exactly that.

...strongly object to using public money to protect Hollywood's copyright...

That's an odd position for a law enforcement officer. Why is &quot;Hollywood,&quot; a lawful business that employs many people and contributes to the tax base, not entitled to protection under the law? Because you don't &quot;like&quot; their product? &gt;&gt;&gt;

I like films. I like yank films. I also think that the purpose of the police is to protect the weak and powerless.

Hollywood and the fashion houses are neither weak nor powerless and can look after themselves. They don't need me - funded by you - to do it for them.

I can tell you that every single person I have lifted for flogging moody DVDs/Handbags/Scent etc has had a clean(ish) record.

It's a &quot;crime&quot; committed by the poor and unempowered.

I hate arresting these people and usually don't - unless they get lippy.

Again and again I am amazed at how much I learn from this forum, and not just about travel.

Why did I work all day in a legal commercial laundry? Guess because I didn't know I could get sympathy by selling illegal junk out in the sunshine chatting with my friends all day.

A man running with purses in his hand and being pursued by police is generally a situation that warrants further investigation. Further investigation is a moot point if the subject party has disappeared.

It's true that in making his decision to intervene, the Australian might have made assumptions about the criminal status of the fleeing party. On the other hand, in the absence of verified information, all we have in turn are assumptions about the fleeing party's immigration status, and/or economic prospects, and/or subsequent treatment under Italian law. Do we know for a fact, for example, that because the fleeing parties were presumably black, that they were first-generation immigrants at all, let alone of this or that immigration status? (And let's not even bother getting into whether any of that is relevant.)

What I'm getting at here is that <b> either </b> decision that the Australian could have made would be based on unverified assumptions. <b> Either way, we are dealing with probability, not certainty. </b> That being the case, I think the Australian made the assumption that had the greatest probability of benefiting the most number of people. As for the Italians in the cafe, their appeal to our pity might be genuine, but as an agent of change, it isn't really very useful. Urging what amounts to anarchy - &quot;ignore the law! It's bad!&quot; will not, by some childish magic, in and of itself breed justice.

People here evidently disagree about whether or how much this kind of grey economic activity hurts society at large. On the other hand, there seems to be little argument that the economic activity in question doesn't overly benefit the participants very much. Subsistence activity or virtual bonded serfdom, to use one poster's phrase, does not sound like an activity that is helpful, or even harmless.... <i> to the participant. </i>

Meanwhile consider that the tax revenue to be realized by a genuine $1500 Gucci bag should be considerable. (In my own fair land, the tax take would be $225 - more in and of itself than what I pay for a bag, period). So the question ought properly to be, how can real change be made in these people's lives? How can tax revenue best be used to improve the economy as a whole? Because access to THAT economy - the economy as a whole - is what we should ideally be seeking for the poor - not a sweatshop or a street corner. And howsoever this is going to happen, sympathy alone - or anarchy, or apathy - won't do it.

Girlspy, there is a difference in quality &amp; YOU are dead wrong.

Weird logic you have there: It's OK to rip off a company but not Ok to rip off the government. Uh-huh.

An interesting topic!
We were surprised to see the &quot;same&quot; Africans in Barcelona, Madrid, Granada..
The Africans are obviously &quot;employed&quot; by a very wide criminal organization
And not only the Africans;
my friend both a &quot;Gucci&quot; belt an Canal Street in New York not long ago.
The whole business is a bit like prostitution. The &quot;trade&quot; is illegal, the &quot;sellers&quot; are haunted down, but the people behind it and most of all the &quot;customers&quot; don't seem to be
deterred.