CNN Takes a Knock At China's Knockoffs And The Simpsons Make Fun of Them

Just when you thought the ruckus about China's knockoffs has died down, CNN Money's column runs a piece with the best diplomatic dig I have read about China to date. The article was written in the context of explaining how and why China has not been able to break the U.S. market for cars yet:

"This means conquering the U.S. and European markets with something other than cheap knockoffs and reversing an abysmal safety record (83% of the country's recalls in recent years involved domestic-made vehicles, which command just one-fifth of the market)." http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/30/autos/china_cars.fortune/

I love how Mina Kimes writes about China's conquering the U.S. and European markets with "cheap knockoffs". I hate to point this out, but China would not be able to conquer these markets if we had more stringent laws protecting consumers against such knockoffs. I must also point out that China would not be able to sell its cheap knockoffs if there was not such a high demand for them either.

Speaking of knockoff cars, The Simpsons did a very good job making fun of knockoff cars (and the popular show Transformers) in its most recent Halloween special last night. In their Treehouse of Horror special, the first cartoon is titled "Untitled Robot Parody". Bart buys Lisa a knockoff of the Malibu Stacy convertible. The convertible morphs into a robot and instructs the other toys in Lisa's room to transform into robots. Soon after, the whole town of Springfield is overrun with huge robots battling each other. As typical of the show Transformers which is what The Simpsons is parodying, the whole town is left in shambles after the robots fight their battle.

I wonder what the Copyright Czar would have to say about that.