Saturday, 5 May 2007

A Cat With Very Large Ears

And a 100% authentic genuine original Chinese Duck


From the Hong Kong Standard :
With its slogan "Disneyland is too far," Beijing's Shijingshan Amusement Park features a replica of Cinderella's Castle, with staff dressed like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and other Disney characters.

None of this is authorized by Disney - but that has not stopped the state-owned park from creating its own counterfeit version of the Magic Kingdom in a brazen example of the sort of open and widespread copyright piracy that has Washington fuming.
And from Japan Probe:
Some have claimed that the park is illegally copying Disney’s Minnie Mouse. However, the park’s operators have insisted that the character on the right is not a mouse. It is a cat with very large ears!
This rather reminds me of the US's rather lax attitude to foreign copyrights back in the 19th century, when their economy was not so much expanding as exploding.
However, there are some firms - NCR and IBM come to mind - whose creative business practices may well be adopted in the US.
People buy Chinese goods because they are extremely cheap, and while not always of the best quality, aren't rubbish either. I wouldn't be surprised if someone starts making "Made in China" goods which are even cheaper, but of the shoddiest possible quality. Just to put the mockers on the competition. It's been done before, you see.

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