U.S. public radio show wants to ask you about drug piracy

[jeaston]

Hi--

I'm a new member of this board, and am looking for people to help the U.S. public radio show Marketplace (that's where I work) out on some stories about piracy. Read on....

Most people have updated their mental image of piracy from high seas and treasure chests to illicit copies of DVDs and compact discs.

Well, it may be time for another update. Modern piracy is so much more than DVDs and CDs: It's estimated that between 5% and 7% of all world trade is in pirated goods.

Ever buy pirated goods? Lost money and business to piracy?

We want to hear from you: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/piracyquery/

From auto parts to pharmaceuticals, pirated goods may look like the real thing -- but they're far from it.

Counterfeit autoparts often break down too soon or don't work at all.

High-profile drugs like Viagra, Lipitor and Botox are copied and and resold to consumers at cheap rates -- or purchased, diluted and sold at full price. The consumer can end up with ineffective or dangerous medicine.

What other sorts of good are pirated? What else should we know about piracy?

To share what you know, please click here: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/piracyquery/

Regards,

Joellen Easton

Analyst, Public Insight Journalism

Marketplace | Marketplace Morning Report | Marketplace Money
American Public Media


** If the above links are broken, try this instead: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/piracyquery/

[admin]

Well thanks for the post, it's a different one for this forum!

I don't think many (if any) of our members will buy drugs on-line, but I guess we have all had the odd fake DVD etc

[jeaston]

clarification

As my impression is that many members of this board are pharmacy professionals, I am particularly curious to find out if people have felt the effect of piracy on their businesses, or their relationship with customers.

If you have had that experience, please follow this link to answer a few questions about your experience:

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/piracyquery/

[admin]

Pirates and FACT

Jeaston

I think the problem we have here is the use of generics, with boxes of drugs in a foreign language, and an English label stuck on the box. We order through large dustribution companies so I'm sure they are not fakes, but the customers hate them! They are called parrallel imports.

I once used a video shop at Uni in Liverpool. The quality of the films were terrible. I reckon only 1 in 4 tapes were genuine. I called the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) about this store, but never even got a reply. The store was just the same when I left after studying for my degree!

That's my experience of FACT. I have also seen pirate videos and games for sale, like we all have. Are you interested in this sort of thing - from a consumer point of view, or just business owners?

Do you want to know why people buy pirates? My friend (a pharmacist) often buys fake games for his console (not sure which one). The reason is that he can get 5 games for £10 instead of paying up to £40 each. He says he wouldn't buy the games if they were full price anyway, so where is the harm? If it's a game he really wants, so he can register it, get manuals etc he buys it anyway.

The same for DVD's. Lots of people copy DVD's but if it's one you really want you tend to buy the original version anyway. If I own 10 copies of fake DVD's and buy one original one, I am not conning the industry out of the cost of 10 DVD's, because I would not have bought them anyway. The reason for all this, in my humble opinion, is corporate greed. Why does a DVD cost more then a video to buy, when a video costs more to produce? The cost to a consumer of a blank DVD is as little as 25p so how much do the big companies get them for? Peanuts! I know artists have to be paid, shops have to make profits, but the mark up on these things is massive. If CD's, DVD's and video games were priced at a more realistic price, say £4.99 pirates couldn't compete with that price, and we'd all buy the originals.

Just my humble opinion, and I don't buy fakes.