“Some off the notorious copy-cating prevalent in the tech industry was highlighted on August 25 when a US court ruled S. Korean giant Samsung had ripped off Apple’s designs,” Michael Fitzpatrick reports for Fortune. “The most damning evidence: an internal memo from Samsung’s head of mobile communications JK Shin in which he suggested to his team, ‘Let’s make something like the iPhone.’ Truth is, however, that both China and South Korea have of late garnered a reputation for some spectacularly brass-necked imitations and attempts at fakery or plagiarism. ‘My country is such a joke sometimes I call it the Republic of Forgery,’ says Seoul-based author and critic Kim Kyung-Sook. ‘That’s after Woo Suk Hwang, [caught falsifying research on cloning] and all the fake luxury watches and fashion you see even worn by celebrities here.'”
Fitzpatrick reports, “Certain parties in Asia seem to revel in the chutzpah that is often accessory after the fake. China has chains of bogus Apple shops, phony Ferraris (a steal at just $10,000 US) and even once boasted a Potemkin multinational — a working facsimile of Japan’s NEC. The Korean peninsular has been no slouch either — delivering fake Starbucks, ‘Starpreya,’ and possibly even a fake Kim Jong-il. (A Japanese university professor claimed that Bill Clinton met a phony Kim in 2009.) The tiny country perched on a peninsula that sticks out of the Chinese continent like a swollen appendix might even be the first for simulated good looks. About 62% of South Korean women have had plastic surgery according to some figures.”
“Why so many forgeries? It might have something to do with South Korea’s education system says Tariq Hussain author of Diamond Dilemma: Shaping Korea for the 21st Century,” Fitzpatrick reports. “‘The education system is the cradle of cheating and bribery, one of Korea’s biggest diseases,’ he explains. ‘Titles count for a lot in Korea, academic titles even more. So given this excessive focus on such titles, there is an incentive to, well, bend the rules, or even cheat. And occasionally these things are uncovered and lead to the demise of the person involved.’ Plagiarism in all sectors of eduction is rife he adds.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Have a little pride, Samsungorea, will ya?
Samsungorea. It sounds like a disease because it is.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Edward W.” for the heads up.]
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