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Fakes: Can You Tell The Difference?

Daniel Fleshbourne   on 20 August 2007 - 13:59 · 2 comments & 1978 views

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Aqua Systems is caught in a noose. Whether employees with the Roslyn, N.Y.-based VAR tied the rope themselves by knowingly selling counterfeit goods is up to a New York circuit court to decide. QLogic says yes, and hopes to prove that the sale of fake host bus adapters by Aqua Systems was both intentional and damaging to the manufacturer's reputation, channel sales and bottom line. Aqua Systems claims it was duped right along with its customers, and accuses its own suppliers of being the real guilty parties.

Aqua's tale is not unusual. Counterfeit goods, both hardware and software, have infiltrated the channel, and solution providers that aren't careful could—knowingly or not—get burned. Peddling goods on the black market is big business. According to a report published by KPMG and the Alliance for Gray Market and Counterfeit Abatement (AGMA), the IT industry loses an estimated $100 billion annually to counterfeit products.

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News source: CRN

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#1 Raven on 20 Aug 2007 - 14:17
Counterfeit goods hurts all legitimate manufacturers. The quest for the lowest bottom line possible is just too tempting and the results ends up hurting the consumer. But I wish they wouldn't tarnish the article with ridiculous claims of '$100 billion lost annually' . This is a 'made up' figure to grab people's attention and is impossible to accurately determine. It's a statistical 'guess' usually padded to support the people paying for the report.
#2 excalpius on 20 Aug 2007 - 17:52
Maybe our law enforcement entities (and judiciary and congress) should be focusing their attention here, on HARD documented losses due to REAL piracy, fraud, and industrial espionage of hardware, instead of the RIAA/MPAA dubious and unsupportable claims of undocumentable losses for "software" like music and movies (that people wouldn't likely have bought if they weren't free).

After all, in the hardware case, an entire supply/OEM chain IS spending money on the fraudulent product in question, which means the legitimate vendors ARE actually showing real losses due to this fraud.

I would think that this would be the higher priority. Ahem.

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