"Keith G" wrote in message
. ..

Counterfeit CD's are clones of the original produced at next to
no cost.


The 'pirate stuff' I've seen (only a couple of Chinese DVDs) is/was a damn
sight more obviously fake than the only 'replica' watch I've seen - which
was an exact copy of a gold Rolex I had at the time. From a few feet you
coudn't tell them apart.

From a few feet? You need to be more discerning that that:-)

People do this to fool the public, and make money with little or
no investment.


Yes, I'm sure some do - to flog at car boots and round the pubs....

It's much much bigger than that.


So where are they sold then?

Go to Singapore, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Tallinn, Vilna, Moscow,
St Petersburg, you will find nothing but counterfeit CDs in most record
shops. It's a huge multi-million business. In KL, they have one of each
CD on the stand, and then burn you a clone, and colour copy the inlay
card while you wait.

Very few people can differentiate between a
genuine and counterfeit CD.

I disagree but irrelevant anyway...

Even experts find it extremely difficult. The packaging is usually
flawed in some way - which is a clue.


I don't agree. Where is this confusion taking place - in a brightly lit
music shop or in some dark car park behind a pub somewhere....???

Brightly lit shops outside the UK, but within the UK on a market stall
near you:-) A recent "investigation" at Portobello and Camden Lock
markets indicated that more than 70& of CD's on sale were fake.
The heavy cavalry appeared within the week. But removing the
traders is not too effective. You need to find the source. That's
not so easy.

Nothing unsubstantiated here. Read the BPI annual report.

Are you kidding?

It's quite an eye-opener.

If the price of CDs came down, do you think they would sell more of them?
Hard to say.

48% of all statistics are made up on the spot.....
Well, 46.75% actually:-)
I believe the piracy figs.


No-one is forced to buy a product
'Take it or leave it'...???

Yes, that's how commerce works.
If you want to buy a house or a car, you pay
the going price. The same for a CD (most shops
will give you 10% discount if you ask)

Iain