Counterfeit clothing

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cw_theology

Puritan Board Freshman
I purchased counterfeit clothing basically half knowingly, I didn't really think that it is probably a counterfeit and probably wrong. Now I can't return it, would it be wrong to still use it?
 
I would just wear it. It's still clothing.
But here in Peru "authentic clothing" is considered a luxury item and 90% of clothing is a "knock off."
If you're concerned about dishonesty you could remove the logo.
 
Charles Johnson said:
I would just wear it. It's still clothing.
But here in Peru "authentic clothing" is considered a luxury item and 90% of clothing is a "knock off."
If you're concerned about dishonesty you could remove the logo.
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It's a soccer shirt, so it has like 10 logos on it, so I can't reomove the logos. And yes I'm more concerned about dishonesty.
 
cw_theology said:
Donating it would only make it worse, because now someone else will have it thinking it is real.
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I am sure a homeless person, who didn't pay for it, won't care all that much.

Counterfeit stuff is illegal. If you bought it knowingly (I don't know what "half knowingly" means) then you are party to the crime. You should probably throw it away and take the loss if you think it is worse to give it to a needy person.
 
TheInquirer said:
I am sure a homeless person, who didn't pay for it, won't care all that much.

Counterfeit stuff is illegal. If you bought it knowingly (I don't know what "half knowingly" means) then you are party to the crime. You should probably throw it away and take the loss if you think it is worse to give it to a needy person.
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When I say half knowingly I mean, the thought that buying counterfeit items is wrong didn't cross my mind until after I bought it, and I was only 80% sure it was counterfeit when I bought it. If I give it to a homeless person it leaves them in the same problem, now they have a counterfeit product. I don't see a difference between me wearing it and a homeless person, other then the fact that I know I won't try to scam another person and sell it whereas with a homless person I don't know that
 
TheInquirer said:
I am sure a homeless person, who didn't pay for it, won't care all that much.

Counterfeit stuff is illegal. If you bought it knowingly (I don't know what "half knowingly" means) then you are party to the crime. You should probably throw it away and take the loss if you think it is worse to give it to a needy person.
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Let me use this example, as I think it is equivalent. If you went to a restaurant on the Lord's day and ordered food, and just had never thought about the fact that doing this encourages others to sin. Your food arrives, and when it does you realize. Oh wait I shouldn't have bought this food as I encouraged someone else to sin. Do you eat the food or not? I would assume the answer is yes. In just the same way in this scenario when it comes to wearing the clothes that the purchase of caused someone else to sin.
 
Are you looking for justification to wear the shirt or do you really want the advice you asked for? The debate is getting tedious.
 
TheInquirer said:
Are you looking for justification to wear the shirt or do you really want the advice you asked for? The debate is getting tedious.
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I'm genuinely open either way. I like to play both sides when I think through issues like this. And this is one of the best arguments I can think for wearing the shirt, but there are good ones the other way too
 
I wear clothing I've purchased from Chinese textile factories all the time that may or may not supply the same exact sportswear companies that the shirt displays. I don't think too much into the supply chain. What do you do, turn yourself in to the CBP? But if it bothers you you should probably trash it.
 
shunoshimobe said:
I wear clothing I've purchased from Chinese textile factories all the time that may or may not supply the same exact sportswear companies that the shirt displays. I don't think too much into the supply chain. What do you do, turn yourself in to the CBP? But if it bothers you you should probably trash it.
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Is it clothing with explicitly trademarked logos by other brands?
 
Hope I'm not giving anyone additional conscience problems to worry over here, but if you live certain places, the stuff you thought was "authentic" and paid extra money for is probably counterfeit too.
 
Andrew35 said:
Hope I'm not giving anyone additional conscience problems to worry over here, but if you live certain places, the stuff you thought was "authentic" and paid extra money for is probably counterfeit too.
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that is very true, it really is not much of a probelm where I am from, but as our brother from Peru said, everything there is knockoff and a lot of the socccer shirts he owns are too. And the shirts I purchased are also soccer shirts. It seems in the soccer shirt market there are tons and tons of knockoffs it is had to buy a real one. Just do a google search for "Spain international jersey" and more counerfeits will show up then real ones
 
Ephesians 4:28. Don’t do it again, thank God for a conviction of the heart, and look for something useful to do for the body.

If your conscience troubles you, you can burn it in the spirit of sackcloth and ashes, or use it as an oil change rag.
 
VictorBravo said:
Ephesians 4:28. Don’t do it again, thank God for a conviction of the heart, and look for something useful to do for the body.

If your conscience troubles you, you can burn it in the spirit of sackcloth and ashes, or use it as an oil change rag.
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well the problem is my conscience is giving me mixed signals. My question is, is there anything morally wrong with just wearing it? And remembering not to buy counterfeits again?
 
cw_theology said:
well the problem is my conscience is giving me mixed signals. My question is, is there anything morally wrong with just wearing it? And remembering not to buy counterfeits again?
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I think you’re overthinking this… if you feel conflicted about wearing it, don’t wear it. Anything not done in faith is sin, so if you’re going to be this troubled over it, better to just not wear it.

Respectfully, by continually questioning those who say just get rid of it, it seems you’re trying to convince yourself to keep it.

Been there, done that. It don’t work.
 
If you think hard enough and dig deep enough, you'll need to discard much of your clothing on moral grounds. And your electronics. You don't want to look too closely into factory conditions in south Asia and east Asia if you are sensitive about things.
 
John The Baptist said:
I think you’re overthinking this… if you feel conflicted about wearing it, don’t wear it. Anything not done in faith is sin, so if you’re going to be this troubled over it, better to just not wear it.

Respectfully, by continually questioning those who say just get rid of it, it seems you’re trying to convince yourself to keep it.

Been there, done that. It don’t work.
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I have been questioning everyone regardless of what they say.

Edward said:
If you think hard enough and dig deep enough, you'll need to discard much of your clothing on moral grounds. And your electronics. You don't want to look too closely into factory conditions in south Asia and east Asia if you are sensitive about things.
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very true, I think the same thing about credit cards too. I have heard that a lot of the points credit card companys can give to you is bassically stolen money from people (but then again there are people who don't use credit cards for this reason and make a living telling other people not too(Dave Ramsey))
 
cw_theology said:
well the problem is my conscience is giving me mixed signals. My question is, is there anything morally wrong with just wearing it? And remembering not to buy counterfeits again?
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Mixed signals means your conscience is telling you no. As to worrying about whether a product is counterfeit in the future, unless you have clear indicators that it is, there is nothing you can do. It's like meat sacrificed to idols. Paul says that in the absence of evidence, eat. If you find out otherwise, don't.
 
Polanus1561 said:
Some of us remember how someone brought up how many of our things we have were made during the Sabbath day.
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Good point. I'm sure at least half of the things I own were made in the Sabbath, yet it is not wrong to use those. Would you say the same about a counterfeit shirt? If so how is the analogy identical?
 
I considered this question and have concluded that I have no problem with wearing such an item. I may have been lied to or ripped off when I purchased the item, and I hope I learned a lesson, but wearing the item? It's no problem with me.
 
cw_theology said:
. I have heard that a lot of the points credit card companys can give to you is bassically stolen money from people
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I don't do "points" - it's cash back or nothing for me. And most of that money comes from merchant fees (the rest from folks that don't pay their bills on time and in full). And the merchants pass that back to the customers (of which I am one). Since restaurants sometimes surcharge the wait staff 3% for credit card tips, I've taken to paying the bill with a credit card and tipping in cash so 3% isn't transferred from the waitress to the corporate owner. (further hint - the merchant fee itself is usually less than 3%).
 
Ed Walsh said:
I considered this question and have concluded that I have no problem with wearing such an item. I may have been lied to or ripped off when I purchased the item, and I hope I learned a lesson, but wearing the item? It's no problem with me.
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I think this is where I am coming too as well. The only difference for me is, I knew it was counterfeit when I bought it, but I don't think that changes how ethical it is to wear it does it?
 
it seems that my thread I have started hits into a deeper issue, namely copy rights. It was wrong for the person making the shirts to sell them because the design is copy righted and he does not have permission to use it. It seems hard to make a case that this violates the 8th commendment as John Frame lays out here https://frame-poythress.org/the-other-shoe-or-copyright-and-the-reasonable-use-of-technology/ so it seems that the issue is not the violation of the 8th command but the 5th. I don't know if this changes anything regarding the morality of wearing a shirt that has violated copy right laws. So I have come to the conclusion that

1. counterfeit goods violate the 5th command rather then the 8th command and since "The U.S. Department of Justice has stated that federal law doesn't prohibit shoppers from purchasing counterfeit products for personal use, even if they know they're fake." then I am perfectly fine to wear the shirt.

I am going to make a new thread discussing this specifically about copyrights. As there are not many other related threads
 
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