Debate about Spyderco Fakes/Counterfeits: What would you say

[SpyderEdgeForever]

I am a long time Spyderco fan and I care about Sal and the people there. I had a discussion with someone about the problem of counterfeits.
The person is extremely pro "open source" to the point of believing _EVERYTHING_ should be open-sourced, INCLUDING all knife designs. I told them I would rather have one or two good Spyderco knives, and buy them at the higher price, than, a load of fakes. They told me "You could have four or five of the knock offs for the price of one of the real thing, that's the cool thing to do." And I felt upset that someone would have this attitude. Their mentality is that mimicry is flattery and I'm the bad guy for defending Spyderco's right to their designs not being counterfeited and faked. The one area they agreed I had a point was when I said "What if someone is trusting their personal safety to a real Spyderco knife, like a rescue worker or someone on a mount climb, and they lose their life or get injured because the knife they had ended up being a cheapo fake made of cheapo low grade steel?" on that they agreed the genuine would be better.

How would you all respond to this person's claims?

PS: They also believe all patents should be dissolved.

[dialex]

For me this is a simple question.
Perhaps I should start by saying that I am pro open source. I think information is a good thing and everyone should have access to it on a need to know basis.

This being said, there is no excuse for stealing. You have the technology to recreate a Spyderco? Well, there is no need to do it. Come with a better product and you'll keep your integrity and earn a well deserved reputation.
There are a few Chinese companies which have a decent approach in this matter. SRM has a knife that looks like a Sebenza but this doesn't affect CR Knives. Enlan has a knife that looks like the Manix (without hole) - but this doesn't affect Spyderco. The differences are obvious and easy to spot. Now I don't say that is is absolutely a good thing, but it's a whiter shade of gray.

Second, the point of open sourcing is to give back. Which, unfortunately doesn't quite happen in China. Take the cell phones. There are some great high end phones made by Chinese companies. Most of them use the Android platform, which is open source. But the apps they develop for their phones are no longer open source. They never share the technical specs so someone could make a better product starting from them. They take for free, but they don't give back anything in exchange.

Yes, you can have five (or ten) knockoffs for the price of the original product. And they may even perform similar to the original. The drawback is that the creative minds that conceived that product(s) will no longer be able to use their creativity. And in the end, we all lose.

[Nate]

To me, there is a big difference between "borrowing" design elements or patterns to make a knockoff and making a direct counterfeit where you put "Syderco" or whatever name brand on it.

There can be issues with both. I question the integrity of some of the models put out by Enlan, Sanrenmu, Navy, etc... but view them as mostly harmless. It seems extremely unlikely that anyone is going to pass off a Sanrenmu 710 as a Sebenza, for example. OTOH, true fakes or counterfeits involve deceit/fraud, because they create something and represent it as someone else's product. This does damage the OEM in many ways. It can potentially impact sales, reputation for quality, and potentially endanger the elu in extreme cases.

In my mind, there is no justification for making something and putting someone else's name on it.