Buyers of Pirated VCD/DVDs in Hong Kong: Their Profile Perceptions

The international trade in counterfeit goods is, from all accounts, enormous. The United States estimates that counterfeiting volumes represent 9 percent of world trade and that it loses about $100 billion annually from counterfeiting (Chugani, 2001). On nearly a weekly basis, popular media such as CNN report another haul of pirated products manufactured in Mainland China or Hong Kong, and such reports are often accompanied by statistics pointing to a serious pirate problem. Such reports and statistics, however, need to be questioned since they are seldom, if ever, supported by primary research. What is certain, however, is that a wide variety of products are now pirated. Although the piracy of branded goods originated in the counterfeiting of elite consumer products such as branded clothing and accessories, such activity is now affecting a wide range of industries, including recorded music, VCDs/DVDs, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, aircraft parts and food products such as coffee beans and Chinese herbs (Bush et al., 1989). Of these, brand name products that carry a marketable and prestigious logo (such as VCDs/DVDs) are especially prone to product piracy. The focus of this chapter is on buyers of pirated products (as opposed to counterfeit, grey area or imitation products). In other words, the focus is on the purchase of fake products that are sold at a fraction of the original price, and the consumer knows they are fake. These are sometimes known as ‘non-deceptive fakes’ (Bamossy and Scammon, 1985; McDonald and Roberts, 1994; Wee et al., 1995; Lai and Zaichkowsky, 1998).