I Was Just Cruising Uluru Blog and found more Moore Bettah copies....WOW

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They also make a direct copy of the BMW X5, believe it or not.
 
armchair_spaceman said:
In my day-to-day I deal a lot with the Chinese view of copying, plagiarism, intellectual property theft etc. I have been told by infringers that they consider their "work" is a "tribute" or "homage" to the original creator (yeah, right) and that I was being "culturally insensitive" for imposing my "western" view of intellectual property.

I feel for the original artisans whose amazing work is so flagrantly ripped off...but you'll never stop it, in a culture that values the "art" of deception and fakery, you might almost be regarded as an idiot for buying a genuine article when you can get a convincing copy for a fraction of the price.
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I don't think they are convincing copies.
 
Chuck, you can have your website provider block IP numbers originating from China and Taiwan, or any other country for that matter. http://www.nirsoft.net/countryip/cn.html

Too late for the Ayers theft, but not to late for other would be art thieves. Blocking may at least slow them down a bit. These people not only rip people like you off, they also rip each other off.
 
Paul December said:
How do the copy-cats sound?
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Not good...

Ayers-website.jpg This is despicable, sad, just wrong... The value of Ayers public apology is neutralized by their inclusion of yet another questionable design (a Moore Bettah mermaid) right next to their posting.

But let's not indict the whole of China over this. Ayers is a Taiwan company, not China. I work with design colleagues in China everyday who are as appalled as we are about stealing design and artistic content from others. Generalizing a whole population just makes it easier for some to rationalize theft of intellectual and artistic property as a societal issue and not a crime.

This kind of theft will only stop when people stop buying it or tolerating those who do. (Or wondering how they sound:() Kudos to those who got Ayers to admit what they are doing. This practice will stop when they see their sales numbers plummet because the all-powerful consumer speaks by keeping their money in their pockets and not supporting Ayers.
 
mketom said:
Not good...

View attachment 55202 This is despicable, sad, just wrong... The value of Ayers public apology is neutralized by their inclusion of yet another questionable design (a Moore Bettah mermaid) right next to their posting.

But let's not indict the whole of China over this. Ayers is a Taiwan company, not China. I work with design colleagues in China everyday who are as appalled as we are about stealing design and artistic content from others. Generalizing a whole population just makes it easier for some to rationalize theft of intellectual and artistic property as a societal issue and not a crime.

This kind of theft will only stop when people stop buying it or tolerating those who do. (Or wondering how they sound:() Kudos to those who got Ayers to admit what they are doing. This practice will stop when they see their sales numbers plummet because the all-powerful consumer speaks by keeping their money in their pockets and not supporting Ayers.
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Thanks for speaking up as you are one of the victims.
 
I have a mixed opinion on that. China has its right to be sovereign, no matter how unconfortable it can be. USA laws DOESN'T apply to rest of the world (unless the US government put a gun on your head - as it occurred many times in History). Things change and intellectual property is and will lose importance as time goes by and I find it positive. It avoids monopolies and economic power abuse (I'm not saying Moore Bettah does that) - that's my opinion as an economist based on market models. They are not marketing those ukes as Moore Bettah ukes.

Anyways, I don't think one interested in a Moore Bettah would but China knock-off instead of it. Almost all my ukes are American-made, but that's exclusively based on the quality.

I'm sorry if I offended someone, but it's a different point of view from a non-US resident.
 
So what do you think would happen if one of us were to approach the Ayers company with a photo of the dragon copy and say 'hey, I want one just like that'. Do you think they'd say no?

I'll just re-emphasize what I said in the other thread about this. It has been crystal clear from the get-go that Ayers KNEW they were doing something wrong. The dragon copy was EXACT, just not as good. Exact color choices, shape, details. It was not an interpretation, it was a copy. They could only copy it if they had a picture, and even if they didn't know it was Chuck's work, they knew they were copying someone's work. The whole thing about how it's Chinese culture to pay tribute is the worst kind of BS. There is no such thing, and shame on whoever said that for trying to invoke culture as a way to protect something that's obviously just stealing.
 
Moore Bettah Ukuleles said:
I've been out all day and just got home and saw this. It leaves me pretty disheartened. All of the art work in the ukes mentioned are 100% my art work. I believed I used a photo to work from with the bird uke. We have hundreds of these "mojitos" flying around the yard and I've even examined the dead ones that constantly fly into windows here. :( With the bamboo uke I didn't even use a pattern. I just looked at the way the bamboo grows outside my shop here and started cutting shell. Gotta tell you, this leaves my spirit pretty deflated. What happens when I sit down and put my energies into creating another masterpiece, only to have it ripped off again? That's not much incentive to be creative. At the very least it's time to protect my web site. Pity it has to come down to this.
I want to sincerely thank everyone who has expressed their concern over this. I need to figure where i go from here.

Much mahalo, Chuck
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Chuck, your work is beautiful. These rip offs fail to recreate the beauty you put into your work. I am so sorry this has happened to you and I wish there are something more I could do other than not support that company... I would give you a hug but we're seperated by a vast amount of land and water so this is as close as I can get... ((((Chuck))))
 
I respect that you may have studied and informed views on copyright laws and the sovereignty of nations. But that really just doesn't apply here. China DOES have copyright laws that would make what Ayers did a violation of Chinese copyright law, and even if it didn't, the US has a right to protect its own citizens from being harmed or exploited by anyone. That is not unique to the US and this really has nothing to do with the US government attempting to dictate how the rest of the world should act.

I also don't agree that the loss of importance of intellectual property is a good thing, but that is a separate debate.

fernandogardinali said:
I have a mixed opinion on that. China has its right to be sovereign, no matter how unconfortable it can be. USA laws DOESN'T apply to rest of the world (unless the US government put a gun on your head - as it occurred many times in History). Things change and intellectual property is and will lose importance as time goes by and I find it positive. It avoids monopolies and economic power abuse (I'm not saying Moore Bettah does that) - that's my opinion as an economist based on market models. They are not marketing those ukes as Moore Bettah ukes.

Anyways, I don't think one interested in a Moore Bettah would but China knock-off instead of it. Almost all my ukes are American-made, but that's exclusively based on the quality.

I'm sorry if I offended someone, but it's a different point of view from a non-US resident.
Click to expand...
 
They are not marketing those ukes as Moore Bettah ukes.

Anyways, I don't think one interested in a Moore Bettah would but China knock-off instead of it. Almost all my ukes are American-made, but that's exclusively based on the quality.

I think it is just as bad selling knock offs......obvious there is a market for these ukes if they are selling them.....real sad know..:(
 
fernandogardinali said:
I have a mixed opinion on that. China has its right to be sovereign, no matter how unconfortable it can be. USA laws DOESN'T apply to rest of the world (unless the US government put a gun on your head - as it occurred many times in History). Things change and intellectual property is and will lose importance as time goes by and I find it positive. It avoids monopolies and economic power abuse (I'm not saying Moore Bettah does that) - that's my opinion as an economist based on market models. They are not marketing those ukes as Moore Bettah ukes.
Click to expand...

Issues with treatment of IP in China is not exclusively an American problem. The EU's laws are much, much stricter than ours in this area.

The reason IP exists is simply to allow those that spend the money to create a real thing from an idea the chance to profit from the idea. This happened because many early inventors were ripped off by manufacturers with the resources to do so. Edison's vaunted inventiveness was often stolen from others and marketed as his own. This was in a time where there were no laws regarding IP and monopolies ruled the American economy. The idea that its lack somehow topples monopolies is inaccurate, I would day and a correlation that can't be drawn.

I don't believe it should last as long as some would like, but it has its place.
 
fernandogardinali said:
I have a mixed opinion on that. China has its right to be sovereign, no matter how unconfortable it can be. USA laws DOESN'T apply to rest of the world (unless the US government put a gun on your head - as it occurred many times in History). Things change and intellectual property is and will lose importance as time goes by and I find it positive. It avoids monopolies and economic power abuse (I'm not saying Moore Bettah does that) - that's my opinion as an economist based on market models. They are not marketing those ukes as Moore Bettah ukes.

Anyways, I don't think one interested in a Moore Bettah would but China knock-off instead of it. Almost all my ukes are American-made, but that's exclusively based on the quality.

I'm sorry if I offended someone, but it's a different point of view from a non-US resident.
Click to expand...
Fortunately there are international laws/treaties that cover these issues. Unfortunately, they are rarely enforced in the developing world.

As the move toward knowledge based economies increases in speed, the protection of intellectual property will continue to grow. One day China and others (Russia and Brazil amongst them, if we are naming names) will start innovating, then they will push for stricter enforcement despite the fact they stole so much IP that they advanced their technology at 3-5 times the pace of others through their theft. Alas, this has little to do with ukes.

I stand with Chuck.
 
Mr Moore This just sucks . But there are almost 90,000 members on UU and if even half of them tell a friend who in turn tells a friend etc that should make this company take notice . When there sales go down they will stop . Your work is one of a kind no matter how many copy's some dirt bags knock off .
 
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If I were Chuck I'd at least contact NAMM regarding this company. I don't know what their stance is on this sort of thievery, but it couldn't hurt to inform them.
 
Horrible thing to happen to Chuck. Not cool Ayers. Not cool.
 
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