Have Chinese Rip-Offs Gone Too Far?

No I don’t think Chinese rip-offs have gone to far. I think its actually good they are doing this. It gives the competition something to worry about. Plus you get what you pay for with these things. It may look like a BMW x5 but you know that’s a 95’ Honda Civic DX under that body. The most your getting with that CEO car is power windows.

You think this is "good"? That's a first. Since when are COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENTS "GOOD"?

I find it shameful that the Chinese are doing this. If they're going to copy Western products, they should do it like the Japanese did. The same technology underneath the sheetmetal, but a differently styled car. Chinese carmakers won't get my respect until they design a car from scratch, just as the Americans, Germans, French, Japanese, Italians, heck, even Russians are capable of doing.

Until then, their cheap and shameless copies serve more to enrage me and want to make me avoid their products in the future.

i dont think they have a civic dx under the body. neither do i think japanese copy 'western' stuff with their own skin on it. there is a reason why china copies stuff and heads for a shortcut. it may change if there is fair trade in this world. if we are ready to give up our sweet lives and profits, china will make its own stuff for itself and 'western' car makers wont have to go to japan to learn how to build better and efficient.

the maple looks nothing like an S4!

but the sr-v and cr-v are indistiguishable from the back, as are the 2 smarts (they're both called smart!)

but the rolls-royce look alike just copies the grill really, and lincoln were doing that for decades.

Maple ?!?! That thing made out of wood?

... if you are going to make such assertions based on the utilization of inventions, then I suggest you examine the Moorish Caliphates. The Arab Moores intermitently ruled the Iberian penninsula for some 700 years until ...oh...1492 as I recall. In the end, many inventions that are often credited to other civilizations were originated by the Arabs. I'm not going to go into it: as it has been a long time, but there i san excellent book ..."The Day the World Changed" I recall by James Burke. It's been a long time...in fact I was in 7th grade...so I would have been 13: so 10 years ago, but it is a good book and I recommend it. It is basically the history of scientific inquiry and as such of civilization.

Oh hell, that comment was to Apex Alex.

Youre damn the Chinese are unoriginal.

Have you ever seen a movie from China?

Has there ever been a music artist that has become popular outside of China?

This country will stab you in the back, just like they did to us after we liberated them after WWII.

I like a little of their food, but if I had 500 billion dollars I would never go there to see the country.

yes el34, i ahev seen several chinese movies.
crouching tiger hidden dragon, house of flying daggers, hero.
good enough?

Let me just ask one thing, what movie is Hidden Dragon Crouching Tiger, Hero, Enter the Dragon, Drunken Master copied from???

EL34 - I'm not sure if it's ignorance or stupidity speaking, but either way - you definitely need to get out more often.

I agree that many of the Chinese auto designs are unoriginal, but why the attack on the people/movies/singers? WTF do movies and singers have to do with car design anyway?

Oh yeah...have you seen "The Departed?" That is a US remake of the Chinese series "Infernal Affairs" - yes, "infernal", not internal. Apparently, they aren't the only country to copy others.

agree with all the others calling EL34 a cultural IGNORAMUS.

from the 15th thru the early 19th century, china was the MOST ADVANCED CIVILIZATION on the planet. they were using innovations like paper money, printing, civil service tests and promotions on merit, celestial navigation, and numerous other innovations HUNDREDS of years before the west.

their decline had multiple factors, among which were the Western imperialists slicing and dicing the country (even encouraging JAPAN to modernize and join them, to AVOID that fate herself!), and foisting OPIUM on the chinese populace. ever hear of the Opium War?

china is merely playing catch-up (sometimes unethically, granted) to reclaim her position as a leader among the advanced countries.

I would never buy a Chinese car for this exact reason, and I admit that I would look down my nose and those who do.

Of course, we have our own copyright infingers here in the US...like oh Chrysler. It may not be quite as blatant, but it is sufficiently turn me off the brand.

...okay that last bit there really makes me sound retarded...

" but it is sufficiently turn me off the brand." should be:

"but it is sufficient enough to turn me off the brand."

seriously, who cares? No one will actually mistake the Ceo for the X5. Quality, performance, and comfort are completely different. It's not like the ripoffs are "stealing" sales from any of the premium brands. Let the people who want a cheap knockoff buy a cheap knockoff, let those who want the real deal buy the real deal.

as for the legal side of things, if designs are really close, the premium brand should take legal action against the knock offs.

I am not sure what copyrights have been violated. You cannot copyright a style, as long as they are not claiming to be a BMW, for example, design can always be copied. They are not knock-off Rolex's or Louis Vuitton bags which are virtually identical to the real thing..down to the label...If you could take legal action because of similarities, Mercedes would have a heck of an action agaist Lexus, who would in turn have action against, BMW, who in turn would have action against Audi..and so on..would a real legal mind care to clarify?

I am not a legal mind, but I have a friend who is a patent attorney and who specializes in copyrights as well. I recall him saying that it is true you cannot copyright a style as such necessarily [like art deco]. However, you can copyright sylistic elemets. I remember him going on about if you can prove that a vehicle is truly a knock off, i.e. maintains the same proportions or even modified versions of the proportions that have some logic, it is illegal under at least US law. I am pretty sure that is what he said of course it has been a few years.

THEY HAVE GONE WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY
TOO FAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOL! I love it! BYD rockS!

I'm Chinese myself and I would never buy this car. Well maybe if I didn't know any better. You'd be surprised how many people don't know what an X5 is down there. I think they copy because it's cheaper to do so than hirer a design team.


EL34,
The country is beautiful once you hit the mountains. The people welcome you with open arms they are as kind as they come. If you visit tourist sites you would be amazed of China's history and how much bloodshed they have gone thru to get to where they are.

I think the US/CANADA had it easy in developing these high-tech savvy nations. Down in China, whoever has money has power, money buys almost anything in that country. Not everyone is fortunate to build unique things and come up with great up to date technology.

-------------

Regardless, without all those laborers in China the US electronics companies would be nothing. They both help each other so as you read this through your computer screens keep in mind how cheap it was to put together your monitor and how high the markets raise up the price for consumers.

Oh no doubt. It is totally wrong. I'm against that completely. At the end of the day the big corps get richer, the consumer goes home happy, the children goes home living the same and probably the same for the rest of their lives.

There some good things the chinese do, make great food, making our stuff. And it's home of the most loved animal, the Giant Panda and it's also home of Jackie Chan.

I believe that will change in the near future as asia is the emerging and growing market.

back in the 1800s, brits were complaining about AMERICAN companies copying british products and designs. even product names were intentionally made up to resemble that of the brit originals, to snare as many unsophisticated customers as possible.

what the chinese are doing is NO DIFFERENT from what we used to do.

as their industries mature, they'll change, just as we did. they HAVE TO, now that intellectual property rights are enforced, whereas even the concept was hardly known in the 1800s.)

Chinese rip-offs have gone too far long before this. Just because it's a BMW, people think that's the last straw. You have to be proud of Honda though. The Chinese made a CR-V rip-off called something like a RC-V and Honda sued their butts off.

I think it okay to copy some of the other auto company design. But this is just "WRONG" man. Come on...they have law or something. I mean if you going duplicate exactly how the other car look. I think someone should be held realible for this.

Talk freaklin Loser............

i think this just so Hilarious, specially the s4 and c-class. the c-class looks like a kia with a MB front end and the s4 is whole different car.

THIS IS A REPOST! CAN'T YOU FIGURE WHAT'S BEEN POSTED ALREADY AND WHATS NOT 009? DO YOU NOT REMEMBER THIS? WE'VE ALREADY SEEN THIS. WE DON'T NEED TO SEE IT AGAIN. Once was enough.
And to categorize it under spyshots? Doesn't look like a spy shot to me!

Trust me, some people on this site are great (001 + the old time users like myself) but the quality of the articles is declining with every new repost and article with grammar and spelling mistakes.
*rant over*

And yes, the CEO looks pretty bad! It's based off the Toyota Land Cruiser.

I looked up the Shanghai Maple online, and it looks NOTHING like the S4. Waaaay cheaper and uglier. Nasty.

Wouldn't really matter. There are enough people in this country willing to spend their hard earned dollars on "copies". That's just the reality of it...like it or not!

everyone on this board should look at all the things in ur place and see where its made from. its pretty eye opening.

Taiwan, Mexico, Indonesia....what's your point?

You should see the Nexus brand of China. It copies the Toyota Landcruiser 80 series but has an old 4 cylinder mitsubishi diesel engine. Once you scrutinize the vehicle, its awful. They're just going for the looks. We may be angered by these copies from different chinese manufacturers but one thing is for sure, one or two of these companies will rise above the rest and could become a major player in the automotive manufacturing industry. Maybe in about 5 to 10 years time? Kind of like a Kia, Daewoo, Ssangyong.

This is hilarious, I would never buy the copy. No matter how cheap they are.