NPR segment on pinata piracy

The movie industry vowed they would not make the same mistakes that the recording industry did in the early days of Napster, and perhaps they are avoiding some of them with respect to P2P networks. However, the lesson appears to have been learned only at a surface level. NPR ran a segment today on the pinaterias of LA. Disney and some other studios sued two small stores over their unlicensed use of movie characters. Two, out of the whole city worth of stores. The NPR reporter described the street filled with 'counterfeit' copies but for the one store which had been sued. Victor, the store owner, settled with them and agreed not to make any more. He has since contacted them about licensing the marks -- the only licensed pinatas available are small, Westernized ones -- and they have not responded. Instead of creating a new business opportunity, they are merely making a token effort at shutting these stores down. Some consistency in policy would be nice, for all involved.

--Ari