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TODAY Wednesday 25 March 1998 Each weekday. Conn Nugent on what's new in the world, on the site.

 

TODAY IN THE WORLD: Solidarity With Counterfeiters

I think this story is environmental, but I admit to loose criteria.

Yesterday afternoon the New York Police Department raided two of our neighbors in this section of Broadway That Time Forgot. At 1190 Broadway (at 27th Street), a truckload of T-shirts and sweatshirts were confiscated and the owners of the wholesale business that sold them were arrested. The shirts had the words "Gucci," "Chanel," "Calvin Klein," and "Tommy Hilfiger" printed on them without the approval of those who own the brand names. Many of the shirts were available to the retailing public on tables set up on the sidewalk. The prices were about one-fifth of what one would pay for a sanctioned shirt at a reputable department store.

At 1233 Broadway, a kindred operation was conducted against a business that sold perfumes and handbags that falsely purported to be the products of famous designers. The names Gucci and Calvin Klein were once again prominent.

I learned of these incidents not from The New York Times but from one of those all-news radio stations whose customary voice is a tone of near-hysteria. The item about the Broadway busts was filler between longer reports on the arrest of a Korean-American playboy for the sanguinary murder of his Chinese-American ex-girlfriend, a rising star at Columbia Law School. Talk about cultural assimilation.

The forces of assimilation were also at work up the street, at the scenes of yesterday's police raids. Immigrants from India, Senegal, and Mexico (I wouldn't vouch for their legal status) were making a buck by providing affordable and popular apparel. That in doing so they were debasing the currency of brand names is both illegal and all to the good. That the act of using Tommy Hilfiger's name without his permission is illegal probably can't be changed, but certainly the cops have better things to do than to try to stop it.

I figure that market forces dictate that counterfeiters are only going to use the names of mega-successful enterprises. After all, people want the cachet of Nike and Calvin Klein and Harvard; they're not particularly interested in infringing the trademark of some marginal mom-and-pop operation. The same applies to pirate videotapes. It's Titanic and Jurassic Park lookalikes that are being vended on the street corners around here, not anything that makes its debut at Sundance. So the counterfeiters cause small pain, contribute to the national economy, and subtly undermine the crazed brand-name materialism of our time by extending its franchise to far democratic reaches. Let everyone wear Calvins, carry Gucci, and reek of Chanel. This is the land of opportunity.

 

TODAY ON THE SITE

Here's a little something from the most recent issue of Whole Earth magazine.

"Liberty Tree Alliance is right at the top of our favorite-website list. A tiny full-time staff and a nationwide circle of friends 'think ecology, follow money, speak freely, take a joke.' Daily commentary by [name deleted], onsite and Capitol Hill reportage, and essays are leavened with mind-stretching features. Check out Donella Meadows, David Orr and Wes Jackson on essential reading in environmental studies, or five dozen experts' annotated most-useful-websites lists (Sim Van der Ryn on architecture, Mark Ritchie on trade, DJ LaChapelle on football). The Grove, their bi-monthly email newsletter, includes news from theirs and other sites and a wonderful Donella Meadows column." [Sound of throat clearing.]

 

Recent "Today" columns:

3/24: A Fair Price for Water
3/23: Unattractive Progress on Transportation
3/20: The Thrill of Demography
3/19: About This Global Economy Business...
3/18: Toilet Heresy
3/17: St Patrick and Your Asteroid Insurance
3/16: Rebellion in Tennessee
3/13: Good News from the Senate
3/12: Children and Cancer
3/11: Save Our Beaches!
3/10: Die Gruenen und der SDP
3/9: In Search for the Holy Grail of the Forests
3/6: My Doom, Your Gloom
3/5: The Great D. P. Moynihan
3/4: "An Earthquake in Insurance"
3/3: Salmon Farming
3/2: Our Friends the Duck Killers
2/27: Trust El Nino
2/26: That Darn Triple-A
2/25: Cutting a Deal on Endangered Species
2/24: Fire? Again?
2/23: Garbage
2/20: Population Rebellion in the Sierra Club
2/19: The Trouble With Cattle

To access more "Today" columns, click "Archives" below.