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From top to bottom: Cyworld of Korea, Etang.com and Hawa of China
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China has taken its legendary knockoff brands into cyberspace, freshly targeting Korean online groups and game services after offering the sincerest form of flattery to Korean real-world products for years.
A typical example is Korea's leading online blog service Cyworld (www.cyworld.co.kr), virtually cloned on Chinese services like Etang.com and Hawa (hawa.cn) with the basic structure -- two frames on top of a background skin -- as well as size, placement and style of details likes the introductory photograph, bulletin board and menu icons almost the same. SK Communications, which runs Cyworld, said, it has been asking China to block the imitations.
NHN had the same problems because of the Chinese site "Game City" (www.gamecity.cc), which essentially copied about 10 Flash animation games from NHN's Hangame service last December. Game City did not even bother to change the Korean characters in Hangame's "Toy" character. "We sent a warning letter to the Chinese side and filed a lawsuit,¡± an NHN official said. ¡°The service has been suspended for now and the suit is pending."
Nexon president Kim Jung-ju is considering legal action against Chinese site 88joy.com.cn for its game Kart Racer (http://kartracer.88joy.com.cn), which by any standards is virtually the same as Nexon's own Kart Rider game, from the game concept down to the cars and characters.
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Kart Racer(left) and Kart Rider
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Industry officials expect Chinese "mimicry" to continue as the Chinese online market expands at a rapid pace. As of 2004, there were 430,000 Chinese Internet domains and 660,000 Chinese websites, often based on benchmark Korean online services.
Korea in turn developed its online content by benchmarking Japan. Nexon's leading games like BnB and Kart Rider are based on characters and game concepts of Japanese companies like Hudson Soft and Nintendo.
It will not be easy for Korean firms to resolve the copyright problems with their Chinese imitators, which may overwhelm them by sheer force of numbers. Korean companies complain that even if the offending services are suspended after they tell Chinese government bodies such as the copyright authorities or send warning letters to the relevant companies, other rip-off sites simply pop up in their place.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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