From the car boot to booting it up? eBay,online counterfeit crime and the transformation of the criminal marketplace

Abstract

This article is based on research with men who have embraced the new technological opportunities offered by the internet to sell counterfeit products and engage in forms of intellectual property crime, specifically trading counterfeit items through internet websites. It examines case studies and qualitative material generated through interviews with professional criminal entrepreneurs who have made use of the web-site ‘eBay’ in order to distribute goods while minimizing the risk of detection and prosecution. This empirical material, it suggests, provides some initial evidence of how more traditional forms of working class male enterprise crime are now being mutated and superseded, and are shifting in light of the opportunities provided by new technology, moving from traditional local marketplaces to new online settings.