That's right, manufacturers in Shenzhen have gone and created their own netbook. And in true copycat fashion, it has a hilariously inverted fruit adorning the top cover.

Spec-wise, the WF188 actually isn't too bad. It has a 10-inch LED display with a resolution of 1024 x 576, a 1.3Ghz Via Nano processor with the VIA VX855 chipset, and a max of 2GB RAM. You can even choose between getting a 160GB hard drive or an up to 64GB SSD. Bluetooth, 802.11b/g wireless, and 3.5G HSDPA connectivity are also on board.

Thing is – despite the logo, the WF188 only runs either Windows XP or Linux. But hey, if you can Hackintosh a Dell Mini, getting OSX on this thing is just one other ingenious pirated solution away. [Netease]

Fake LV Aura eschews its pricey inspiration's circular display for a standard square one and we're guessing its specs aren't even close to the already middling 2-megapixel camera, 2GB internal memory, 400 hour stand by time of the real Aura.

But that one's still $2000 (and you can't resell it), while this one's about $113. And if you're going to have a phone that tells people "I care about looks more than anything!" you might as well drop the illusion that you have any class at all. [shanzhaiji]

Usually, the blurbs for fake DVDs are just babbled translations of whatever description the Chinese came up with. Maybe after years of having those lampooned, DVD piraters decided to copy-paste reviews from online instead. Only, I guess it's really hard to tell what's a good review when you don't speak English.

In case you were wondering, the review was from IMDB. Good job, marytothemax! Betcha didn't know millions would be using your review to decide whether to pick up a pirated version of Fox's Terminator show!

A camera crew visited Yaroo headquarters to inquire into the strange resemblance between it's logo and that of Japan's most popular search engine (that's right... Yahoo! is Japan's most popular search engine).

But the company spokesman denied that theirs was an imitation. The spokesman explained that the name “Yaroo” was a play on the Japanese word “Yaru,” which means “do.” Since they'll do anything. Including copy stuff, presumably. Ya-boo. [Pink Tentacle]

Do you want a nasty shock or a tree fire? Well do ya? Hell no you don't. So, watch out for "surprisingly low prices, unusual labeling or certification marks and a lack of sales tax on a receipt since counterfeiters generally don't report their sales. Consumers should also be aware of street vendors and unauthorized dealers." If this message scared only one of you straight, then I (and the National Electrical Contractors Association) have done our job.

Counterfeit Christmas Lights Pose Safety Hazard for Consumers
Decorations with Fake UL Labels Among Growing Range of Counterfeit Electrical Products

BETHESDA, Md., November 11, 2008 — Counterfeit Christmas lights—including those with fake Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. (UL) labels—pose a threat to consumers for their potential inability to meet electrical safety and fire codes. The traditional holiday decorations are part of the rapidly growing crime of counterfeit electrical products in the United States—90+ percent of which are imported from China. Now reaching epic proportions in a $130 billion industry, counterfeiting is a crime that threatens the lives and safety of all U.S. citizens and electrical workers.
"Underwriters Laboratories Inc., like many other Intellectual Property Rights and Trademark owners, has seen a dramatic increase in the amount of counterfeited products and trademark labels on those products in the past, several years," said panel participant Robert Crane, lead enforcement manager, Anti-Counterfeiting Operations, UL, Chapel Hill, N.C. "For several decades, UL has integrated security features in many of its labels."
Crane participated in the opening panel discussion last month in Chicago as part of the new Anti-Counterfeit Products Initiative hosted by the NECA-published Electrical Contractor magazine, Bethesda, Md., and The Electrical Distributor (TED) magazine, published by the National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED), St. Louis. The joint industry initiative is endorsed by NAED, NECA and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA).
Crane said that more recently, holographic labels were developed to further thwart the piracy of UL labels with the first holograms introduced in 1993 for decorative lighting strings and outfits. Since the holograms were so successful, said Crane, in 1996 additional categories for products manufactured in China also required holographic labels. This year, he said more requirements have been implemented regarding the use of holograms along with a newer hologram technology including the newest gold holograms.
A few warning signals for counterfeit lighting include surprisingly low prices, unusual labeling or certification marks and a lack of sales tax on a receipt since counterfeiters generally don't report their sales. Consumers should also be aware of street vendors and unauthorized dealers.

###

Published by the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), Bethesda, Md., Electrical Contractor magazine delivers 85,300+ electrical contractors and more than 68,000 electrical contracting locations, more than any other industry publication.

Another man, who said he wasn't seeking damages, sued Microsoft in a Beijing district court for “violating the integrity of his computer.” He argued that “Microsoft has no right to judge whether the installed software is pirated or not” and demanded that the company remove the notice that he was software piracy victim from his software.

Just to refresh, the "illegal measure in question" is a nagware that turns the screen black on allegedly pirated copies of windows every hour. No data is lost, you're given a countdown for when your screen will return to normal... it's basically just a major annoyance (assuming that it is only pirated copies getting nagged). Is it just me, or does this seem a little brazen of people to sue for what's basically stealing? I think I'm actually starting to feel sorry for the big guy. [Shanghai Daily]

Also making the cut for this "impossible to counterfeit" timepiece—their boast, not ours—are layers of invisible UV marking, laser perforations of the watch's internal parts, high-security inks, and special secret measures that are used to secure passports and currencies.

Some of the 400 models even have tiny text on the dials that is readable only with a magnifying glass. And, like the watch, even the text is full of itself, as it reproduces portions of some letters sent between 19th-century family members of the watchmaker, Jaques-Barthélémy Vacheron and François Constantin. [WSJ]

It's not just industry groups like the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition that's quoting them either. Everyone from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the Patent and Trademark Office to the FBI will repeat the same numbers back at you, pointing evasively to each other when asked which body funded the extensive economic analysis needed to arrive at such figures.

Ars pointed out that, even without looking for their sources, the numbers don't make much sense. 750,000 would mean 8% of all unemployed people in the U.S. lost their jobs to counterfeiting. $250 billion is more than the combined 2005 domestic revenues of the movie, music, software and video game industries. Yet policies are made from this information every day. [Ars Technica]

Several crashes of military aircraft can be attributed to knockoff chips, but more insidiously, internal military data might be at risk. Melissa E. Hathaway, a head of cybersecurity at the FBI, says, "Counterfeit products have been linked to the crash of mission-critical networks, and may also contain hidden 'back doors' enabling network security to be bypassed and sensitive data accessed [by hackers, thieves, and spies]." Robert P. Ernst, who investigates counterfeiting for the U.S. Navy, estimates that 15% of the spare or replacement microchips bought by the Pentagon are fake. Where do these parts actually come from?

Made in, as BusinessWeek colorfully puts it, the "Chinese hinterland," a lot of these components are made on the cheap and sold to the government for much less than name-brands can offer. To be fair, no evidence of terrifying espionage has been found; all of the problems are due to crappy chips failing to work at the worst times, which really should have been expected, since the military has been paying half the price for the same product.

But you can start to take off that tin foil hat, because steps are being taken. After the inquiries the military has decided to effect a rule requiring the source of all chips be ascertained before they place a bid. I'm satisfied, aren't you? [BusinessWeek]

The FBI op, named Cisco Raider, was a two-year-old operation that targeted illegal distributors of fake network hardware, mostly manufactured in China. With the help of their Chinese counterparts and Cisco Systems, the FBI has so far executed 39 search warrants and confiscated roughly 3,500 network components.

The FBI is still not sure whether the counterfeit goods were distributed for profit or for reasons more insidious. Though Cisco says none of the counterfeited goods contained spyware, the threat of hackers infiltrating our systems is very real.

Modern circuits have billions of parts, so it's incredibly hard to detect the tweaked bits that could help nefarious foes take over our military infrastructure. And once the cyber-terrorists take over, who're we going to call? John McClane? [New York Times]

From what we can gather, its makers think this is better than the iPhone because it accepts microSD cards, and it says here it runs Windows XP and has a 2-megapixel camera on board. And hey, it has 3D sound! At least they're not claiming it's a smartphone. [Taibao.com]

Product Page [via TokyoMango]

While the fake Nano, shown above, won't fool anyone, the Shuffle box is pretty convincing.

Counterfeit Apple iPod Nanos and Shuffles [iPodGear]