BrianGarst.com

This is bad law making:

Tourists in Italy and France could be fined hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even jailed, for buying knockoff items, lawyers are warning.

The countries have recently introduced tougher penalties for both the sellers and buyers of counterfeit goods.

In France those caught buying fake designer clothes, sunglasses, sports gear, handbags and watches could end up paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines or be sentenced to three years in prison.

There is much debate over intellectual property rights.  My view is that they are worth defending, but many laws go overboard in doing so.  This is certainly one such example.

Punishing people who buy “knock-offs” is ridiculous.  It is not the buyer’s responsibility to ensure that the seller has complied with the law.  The same logic would have buyers punished for purchasing products made with illegal child labor, or from companies that emit too much pollution.

It is an extraordinary burden placed on buyers to expect them to do this level of research on a product.  If I see a nice shirt at a price I want to pay, I shouldn’t have to risk jail because it turned out to be a “knock-off” of some overpriced designer that I’ve never heard of.

France Italy