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travelerjim
November 4th, 2010, 14:30
From Pattaya Times, this feature story about SPICE Magazine and
an unauthorized "fake" Thai SPICE....
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y64/travelerjim/ThaiSpiceMagazine.jpg
The real Thailand SPICE! magazine on the left and the copied version on the right. Note the Issue numbers, ISSN bar code almost exact name and layout make the counterfeit copy look like the next issue of the official magazine.

http://pattaya-times.com/a6410-police-c ... s-magazine (http://pattaya-times.com/a6410-police-crack-down-on-distribution-of-bogus-magazine)

A police investigation in Pattaya has discovered that a leading entertainment magazine printed and produced in Pattaya and distributed all over Thailand has been illegally copied and distributed under a different, but very similar name.

Police have caught the American ringleader in Pattaya and are searching in Chiang Mai for two Britons involved. A Filipino man in Pattaya who was selling ads for the counterfeit magazine is also being sought. Several Thai people involved have also been forthcoming to police inquiries.

Thailand Spice has been the leading English language, gay-friendly entertainment magazine in Thailand for many years. A group of mostly foreigners produced an almost exact copy and called it "Thai Spice" and apparently tried to pass it off as the original to fool advertisers and readers and make money from their crime.

American national, Wayne Frederick Watson, Jr., age 62, who is also called "Santa" because of his white beard and long, white hair, wire-rimmed spectacles, pot-belly and jovial manner seemingly tricked the owners of the hugely popular Spice magazine by making a written agreement to be an agent and to print the magazine as an agent for 36-monthly issues in order to get proprietary graphic files and the Thailand Spice magazineтАЩs database containing advertiser and distribution information.

But after just two monthly issues - and in clear violation of the agreement and Thai law- Wayne Watson used the graphic files, unique city guides, city maps, recommended places lists, advertising client list, distribution list and even some of the former staff of Thailand Spice and printed and distributed his own version of the copied magazine called "Thai Spice" to fool readers and advertisers into believing they were reading the same magazine they had been reading for years.

read more via link...

tj

Patexpat
November 4th, 2010, 15:53
much more to this than meets the eye me thinks .... especially as the former owner of the original Spice magazine introduced me to a guy from Chiang Mai as the new owner a few months back .... although I believe there was a tie up of some sort between the original owner of Spice and the owner of Pattaya Times for a short while prior to that.

Beachlover
November 4th, 2010, 19:01
I think I've seen these magazines around before. They're small aren't they? To me they didn't seem to be worth much than a quick flick though...

thrillbill
November 4th, 2010, 20:18
???? I don't get it... There would be that much money involved to produce a fake Spice magazine?

November 12th, 2010, 17:08
Heh, thats something new to me, as we know it's quite common to fake bags, jewelry - watches, and whatnot, but it's new to me that magazines are being faked too...Is it a seperate magazine with its own content or did they just print copies and sell them ? :D