Thailand is famous for knock-offs. I bought the complete collection of Star Trek for less than $100. The cost in the States would have been over $1000. My guilt was assuaged by this savings, especially since most of the money goes to the bosses instead of the workers. This rationale would not prove my innocence in a court of law and last year my culpability was tested by an arrest in Thailand. The crime - Internet copyright infringement. My website was #1 on Google for Ferrari shirts. Luck, because my Internet promotion skills are zero.
My mistake had been to meet with several Italians about producing shirts for them. I gave them an alias. This subterfuge kept them off my trail, until they hired a private investigation firm in Bangkok, Quantico LLD operated by a Yale graduate. A customer in Texas placed several orders, then announced that he had burned his credit card. He asked if he could send the money via Western Union. It was for $500. Sales were down. I needed the money and said yes using my real name.
Stupid.
A month later a min-van pulled up to my house and 10 police surrounded me.
Bangkok cops.
Honest.
They busted me for possession of twenty shirts. Like I said sales were down. They never cuffed my wrists or took away my telephone. In fact they stopped on the motorway to order me a #3 dinner from KFC. At the police station I was put into an a/c office. The police asked if I wanted to watch a movie. I picked out THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY. Two cops watched it and I explained how Clint Eastwood was a bad hero. After process I was taken upstairs to be filmed by the national TV.
Thousands of shirts were piled against the wall. The police colonel said they were mine in Thai. I coughed and said that he must be mistaken. He looked at me and smiled conveying that this was no mistake and no problem either. These shirts belonged to someone big. I was taking the fall. Another policeman whispered, "Not worry. This only cost you $100."
And he was right.
Ferrari was safe from the ravages of my website. Thai honor was redeemed and I was out on bail. I went drinking with my Bangkok friend. He was a cop. A good one. They always are when they're your friends.
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