If anyone’s in Washington state, pass through the town of Leavenworth, an intentional imitation of a Bavarian village, with no actual German heritage.

I seriously just finished writing a paper based on Baudrillard’s “Simulacra and Simulation”, so this is really eerie. Cat and Girl have officially conquered my life.

There should be a little “3/50” mark somewhere on this comic. It always amuses me how artists intentionally restrict the supply of their prints.

Cat’s crotch makes a valid point.

Is Cat buying knockoff iPads or bootleg DVD’s?

Copa, artificial scarcity is the cornerstone of our economy! You wanna kill us all?!?

It’s a pizza hut.
It’s a taco bell.

You got me on this one, you mean it doesn’t matter if you buy the copy and the artists and producers of the product don’t get paid?

@tudza It doesn’t have to be bootleg. Remember all the yelling about the “Special Edition” Star Wars that wasn’t enough like the original (it was mostly better)? Or the recent transfer of The Wizard of Oz from film to Blu-ray which everyone liked because they preserved the film grain? Realistically, pirate copies are always cheaper, which means the only reason anyone buys the “official” copy is because they place some value on the “authenticity” of that copy.

If the music industry wasn’t paying the artists to begin with (or barely paying them) and the copy sales still give the artists all the credit for their work… then… is there a difference from any perspective but that of the parasitic lawyers?

In regards to the last panel: how about switching theoretical authenticity with transcendental authenticity? Kant might have approved.

It’s the original copy!

The contrast between “real” and “fake” is a conflict of ownership, taking the form of “intellectual property”. Who gets to profit from it? That’s why it’s a battleground in a consumer culture. Claims of authenticity have nothing to do with it.

Forget it, Girl, it’s Chinatown…

@sep332 Or because the official copy is easier to get. Not everyone can be bothered figuring out how torrents work.

@Esn First, I didn’t say bittorrent. This comic is about cheap DVDs. Second, 1. install uTorrent 2. download torrent file 3. wait.

Very cool. What a great concrete example of Derrida’s Differance and of the whole work of deconstruction…

Do you ever read those jokes (comics, articles, whatever) that over simplify deconstruction and/or post-structuralism or just get them plain wrong?

I would show them this comic.

This has to be THE most intellectual comments page in web comics. Baudrillard, Kant and Derrida walk into a bar…

Reminds me of how in Beijing, I ended up thinking… ‘this is awfully like Chinatown, but with slightly more obscure Engrish’

“It’s the copy and the original,” was funnier as “it’s a dessert topping and a floor wax.”

In Japanese class (a long time ago) I noticed that the word “tigaimasu” means both “different” and “wrong”. This was verified by my friend Yuko who then added “…dang!”

“Genuine imitation plastic.”
Thats it!
I am the dumbest person here and I think this is a string of comments to beat all.

Music wants to be stolen. Artists want to be poor. And a fake thing is just a real thing pretending to be a different real thing.

Seriously, though, if everyone insisted on getting free copies of movies and music, and no one would ever pay for them, would big-name actors and producers and musicians stop making anything? Would the only art in the world be the kind that’s made by people who are willing to give it away free just because they love making it?

And would that make the world a better place, or just different?

@Erika – Art for art’s sake is a nice ideal, and many people have managed to produce their best work while still holding a day job. What, though, shall we do with people whose ideas are bigger than their budget? Historically, we’ve seen two dominant models: either a wealthy patron sponsors the work, like Mozart’s concerti or Michelangelo’s David, or the artist sells his/her work to he people, like Shakespeare and his plays.

There is already a market where both authenticity, quality, and respecting the creators of work has fallen by the wayside. It’s called pornography. The “information wants to be crowd”, while espousing high-minded ideals and valid concerns about post-scarcity economics, are ultimately fighting for their own selfish aims. And, in our pre-scarcity reality, their ultimate success would drive all creative processes into the same shallow, decadent place. Disrespecting creators and not allowing them to choose the terms of their own work ultimately robs innovation of all value.

But this particular comic has nothing to do with piracy, stealing, nor the respect one does or doesn’t grant to those who shape the things we love.

Is it really possible to “oversimplify deconstruction and/or post-structuralism?” :-)

By the way, can anyone tell me why Derrida was so obsessed with other people’s sex lives?

When we go camping in the amazing perfect authentic wilderness, we inevitably end up discussing how cool it would be if it was all a replica, inside a giant warehouse in japan.