Post #391478 by Paipo on Thu, Jul 3, 2008 2:55 PM

There are plenty of kiwis (Maori carvers included) ripping off other kiwis in this instance - I have just seen another bogus copy of that Funaki mask and reported it on a local site not 10 minutes ago. In fact from what I'm being told by people here who are writing to me, the worst perpetrators are right here in NZ and supporting this blatant theft of intellectual property on a massive scale. I feel very sorry for the few carvers who still try and make a living from Maori influenced bone work.
We also have Americans ripping off kiwis (City Buddha), and Indonesians and Philliipines carvers ripping off kiwis. Also , as far as I'm aware everyone had trouble signing up for yelp - I don't think overloaded servers disciminate by geographical location...

Let's keep this on topic and not let it devolve into some "Them vs. Us" xenophobic finger-pointing exercise. There are greedy bastards lurking under rocks wherever you choose to look, and I'm sad to say most of them are right here in our back yard!