Meizu rips off artist to showcase iPhone ripoff

Why merely steal the entirety of your product's industrial design and user interface when you can gank so much more? Philip Warner of Lithium Picnic studios dropped us a line to let us know that the wallpaper being used on the latest rendering of Meizu's M8 MiniOne is his own work -- and surprise, surprise, Meizu hasn't licensed it, which ironically only serves to rip off Apple's own ripping off of artists. Yeah, you've gotta have stones to survive in this industry, but Meizu's chutzpah takes it to a whole new level, particularly if they makes good on their apparent intention to debut the M8 stateside at CES in a few weeks. Then again, when they said "CES," maybe they meant some knockoff tradeshow held in a vacant lot somewhere.

[Image via CNMO]

[painty @ Nov 26th 2007 6:18PM]

why does engadget obsess over this so much?
everything that sees it is gonna know its a cheap knockoff.
people who like apple products are gonna buy apple products regardless of how many knockoffs that are out there.

[Jeff @ Nov 26th 2007 7:23PM]

Because its looks like an iPhone...doesn't matter how many touch screen phones there were before...iPhone is the only one that counts.

Its the way we look at gadgets here.

[SmartedPanda @ Nov 26th 2007 8:45PM]

Meizu M6 is a good MP3 player compared to the original nano.
Imagine this thing, if they put this much effort in a nano wannabe, imagine how it is compared to the iPhone.

And this is a tech website, not an Apple Tech site.

[L.Cyphre @ Nov 27th 2007 4:20AM]

>this is a tech website, not an Apple Tech site.

O, sancta simplicitas!

[Anonymous @ Nov 28th 2007 1:45PM]

And of course engadget does not care enough to retract this untrue post, why? Engadget writers = fucking scumbags

[James Cameron @ Nov 26th 2007 6:20PM]

Didn't Apple ripoff another artist's work? So what's new? How about putting my picture on there and making me popular and maybe a little richer when this Meizu might end up selling like hotcakes?

[Constable Odo @ Nov 26th 2007 11:06PM]

Selling like hotcakes? What a laugh. You'd probably eat a cardboard hotcake if it looked like a real hotcake. You'd probably get sick from it. Just like the Meizu owners might when they buy this fakerfone.

Only time will tell whether this MiniOne lives up to it's looks. It does look good, but it also needs to work well. I won't make any snap judgments. I'm interested in seeing how well it sells on it's own merits.

[granny down east @ Nov 26th 2007 6:21PM]

The point is, the artist phtographer licensed HIS work and Meizu has ripped that off too.
Warner is already being persecuted. Enough already.

[4honor @ Nov 26th 2007 6:25PM]

Umm... Already read about this in the previous post about this "new" device...

[humps @ Nov 26th 2007 6:25PM]

Since this is all vapourware, so what you really need is someone or a group of talented photoshopers to blatanly rip off Meizu's products. Can someone setup a website, create a vapour company. Then rip off everything Meizu's got. This should then be reported by engadge over and over again! Then we'll see what Meizu has to say about it.

[Iain @ Nov 26th 2007 7:36PM]

I think you're missing the point - this is only important because they can mention Apple in the story.

Meizu could make exact clones of every other DAP or mobile on the planet and it wouldn't get as much coverage as they do for one device that's similar to an Apple product.

[James Cameron @ Nov 26th 2007 6:25PM]

Anhoo, I preferred this phone over the iphone and this image over the crappy ipod Touch image of Macy Grace. So sue me.

[krizoitz @ Nov 26th 2007 6:41PM]

How is Apple ripping off another artist when the same people did the work for Apple's commercial AND the music video? Unless the music group had exclusive rights that the design firm they hired blew off when Apple hired them to do an add, no one ripped ANYONE off.

[James Cameron @ Nov 26th 2007 6:44PM]

http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/05/apples-little-problem-with-ripping-off-artists/

[krizoitz @ Nov 26th 2007 8:50PM]

Again, Apple hires an ad firm to do these ads, how is Apple supposed to go through every commercial out there to make sure the add firm didn't copy someone else (or maybe the ad firm did BOTH. If the ad firm broke the rules then yes Apple should hold THEM responsible, but that is an entirely different scenario than Meizu actually USING another artists work without acknowledging them, or copying a known product design completely.

[Homeboy @ Nov 26th 2007 6:50PM]

I don't see the problem with it being an iPhone rip off, that doesn't exactly hurt us in anyway. I'm not hyped up at all about this phone but I'm keeping one eyeball on it. It's it good, unlocked, priced right and with an open software then I will by no means take a deep look into it.

I have no problems at all with companies ripping each other off fighting for my consumer dollars.

[SteveMB @ Nov 26th 2007 6:50PM]

Way to do your research. Did you know that the Meizu mini player came out BEFORE the new 16GB Creative?

[krevency @ Nov 26th 2007 6:51PM]

Support Lithium Picnic!

[Macha88 @ Nov 26th 2007 6:56PM]

CES=Copied Electronics Showcasing
or maybe
Chinese elecronics showcasing

[Truth Hurts @ Nov 26th 2007 7:50PM]

Here's what's happening in China: 1) Japanese and Korean gadget, phone and car makers release sleek, innovative new devices or vehicles domestically in Japan and Korea; 2) Chinese rip-off companies buy one, and return to China where the whole thing is copied; 3) The Chinese companies sell the fake version domestically in China; 4) when the original is finally sold in China, Chinese consumers think the original is a counterfeit of a Chinese original, since the Chinese phone was sold first, and are OUTRAGED at the copyright violation. Counterfeiters cost legit companies about $600 billion per year and growing fast, and the overwhelming majority of it happens in China.

Source: http://www.therawfeed.com/2006/11/chinese-buyers-think-original-gadgets.html

[James Cameron @ Nov 26th 2007 6:58PM]

@sandeeb
I can't believe that you're bitching. Be very thankful for the ripoff/copy of the products out there. Or else you wouldn't be able to afford a nice computer and be typing on here. I bet most of the stuff that you own right now are ripoff.

[raremind @ Nov 26th 2007 7:21PM]

I cant get to the artist Philip Warner, but the picture above is not from Meizu themselves. Its fan art from the meizume.com forums. Someone please let this guy know so he saves himself a ton of money trying to sue Meizu (Leave that to Apple). If he posts in their forums they will remove the post.

[James Cameron @ Nov 26th 2007 7:36PM]

Those Chinese are smart. They are posting as fans. LOL.

[D. Chick @ Nov 27th 2007 2:39AM]

...

It's Philip's photograph. It's not fan art.

[Iain @ Nov 27th 2007 7:45AM]

D.chick, he means that the render of he M8/MiniOne is a piece of fan art.
It wasn't produced by Meizu and, so, isn't actually Meizu ripping someone off.

[Mr Corsini @ Nov 26th 2007 7:23PM]

I have a lot of love for engadget but he D***head who wrote this should shut his face. Stop banging on about meizu ripping your beloved apple off. Apple has ripped off and skanked design and all sorts off so many people over the years (they're just better at hiding it) stop banging on about meizu like their some rogue chinese manafacturer, plundering the revolutionary ideas from the 'cult of apple'. So the UI is slightly skanked big F***ing deal. The operating sytem will be bulit on a totally different framework (WIN CE 6.0), it will be made of different materials and have a whole host of features apple will never ever implement in a million years. Get your sad little techno f**k head out of apples dirty corporate a**hole. Without the chinese you wouldn't have any of your closed platform bulls**t apple phone and mp3 players. And who gives a F**k that they stole some clowns jpeg? It's a product rendering, hardly worth a f***ing law suit and emails to the guy, get a f***ing grip. I hope these fly off the shelves, then maybe you will shut up with this boring 'iclone' propeganda bulls**t. NO IDEA IS ORIGINAL

[Jeff @ Nov 26th 2007 7:28PM]

Lets save the ranting till we have a product in our hands....ripoff or not...we gotta see if its good...I hope it is.

[DeathFromAbove @ Nov 26th 2007 7:35PM]

Meizu is ripping off Windows CE 6.0 too?

F**k!

[Saad R, @ Nov 26th 2007 8:53PM]

Amen to everything you said. The best answer on a "lame" apple-love post I've ever read. Thank you again man.

[Jeff @ Nov 26th 2007 7:26PM]

The Miniplayer came before the Creative...I bought the Miniplayer first...6 months later I saw in a local Best Buy ad, the 'new' Creative and I was like...WTF

[Err0r @ Nov 26th 2007 7:27PM]

Those images aren't by Meizu. They are fan art, made by a FAN. Get your facts straight Chris.

[Mr Corsini @ Nov 26th 2007 7:30PM]

hahaha, it's fan art, he didn't even get the facts straight either. joker

[revivinggreen @ Nov 26th 2007 8:29PM]

fan art my a$$. if this is "fan art" then that "fan" blatantly ripped Lithium Picnic off.

to educate you, because you apparently need it:

unfortunately due to a lawsuit with suicide girls phillip had to dismantle the lithium picnic site, sort of, otherwise the photo would be easily accessed by his portfolio.

here is a link to where he also posted this picture on his livejournal community account from NOVEMBER 5, 2005 (urm, hello? more than TWO YEARS AGO), with specific credits. http://community.livejournal.com/lithium_picnic/81997.html

this is also a link to a post about someone ELSE stealing from phillip: http://community.livejournal.com/lithium_picnic/98050.html --ironically with the same image!

this happens to be an image of Apnea (http://www.apneatic.com/), a well known fetish model AND phillip's significant other.

can you not understand why the stealing of this image that might seriously piss him off?


****please note that if you do go to the link on livejournal it is NOT necessarily work safe, or under 18 friendly. AT ALL. please be advised.****


side note:
also, i'm really frickin' sick of people using the excuse of "nothing is original" to justify stealing other people's work, art, and efforts...especially because they're too cheap, lazy, or otherwise impaired to create something themselves. no one put a gun to the decision-maker of this company and forced him to steal an image of a fetish model. there is no excuse for this, whatsoever.

[jy @ Nov 26th 2007 9:46PM]

@revivinggreen
I think the reference to "fan art" is to say that some fans of meizu may have photoshopped that into a mockup of the meizu m8. This has been done multiple times in the meizu bbs forums. Here it looks very official and probably is. Lithium Picnic may not get anything back if it was just a fan who took his picture for the mockup. That's why he has to get confirmation from both CNMO.com and from Meizu that the photo is official. Assuming this is an official photo, if Meizu is "nice" maybe he will get some compensation. Or they can just ask cnmo to remove the photo and use another photo for the mockup.
I doubt they had any widely distributed advertisement for this phone as it doesn't even exist yet, so any sort of compensation is going to be minimal at best.
As for the rest of the meizu deal, they have made some pretty good mp3/4 players that are a step above the common ripoff brands. Their company isn't exactly a shady vapourware company. As for why they have to copy the itouch/iphone's design, I don't know. But they had some pretty original mp3/4 players before. Judging from their previous products, if they can deliver this phone, even if it is an iphone copy, it stands a good chance to be a high quality product.

[riggs @ Nov 27th 2007 9:44AM]

lol @ revivingreen wasting his(?) time typing and still FAILED.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Nov 26th 2007 7:46PM]

When I first saw this post, I could of swore that was an iphone. It's such an obvious rip off. You meizu people could atleast rip some then add your own original conconction of ideas

[Truth Hurts @ Nov 26th 2007 7:48PM]

Actually, the Chinese not only rip off our designs, but they put out a third-rate crap covered with "dangerous lead". As if that wasn't enough, the Chinese even fake the country of origin.

See: http://www.mobilementalism.com/2007/05/24/amycoll-ps3-phone-plays-mario-on-a-fake-windows-ui/

Also, here’s an interesting report from Japanese TV on Chinese/Taiwanese companies copying Korean products: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSBMc9Z5od8

Highlights (for those who can't understand Japanese):
- A copy of a car tail light: the original says KOREA on it, while the Chinese copy says KOBEA. The other major difference between them is that the Chinese-made light is not properly sealed and can fill up with rain water.
- Korean consumers tell reporters that it is very difficult for them to tell if brand bags being sold in shops are the real thing.
- Chinese knockoff companies are selling copies of a Korean beer brand.
- Six months after a South Korean company started selling a new motorbike, a Chinese/Taiwanese company suddenly began selling an copy of the vehicle. While the outside appearance is similar, the Taiwanese-made bike’s engine apparently breaks down within its first year of use.
- A Korean employee of a major golf goods brand states that he is concerned that Chinese/Taiwanese copies are having a negative influence on the image of his brand.

Woot, go Chinese 'n Taiwanese knockoffs!

[bunkka @ Nov 26th 2007 7:51PM]

Hey It's Apnea! I love her work!

[Fruition @ Nov 26th 2007 7:52PM]

I always thought to "gank" was to kill a pvp-flagged low-level member of the opposite faction for no reason other than because you can. I didn't know it had any other meaning. But I obviously play too much WoW.

[airmanchairman @ Nov 26th 2007 8:41PM]

China's at an industrial stage that Japan and Korea used to be around 20-30 years ago - monkey-see-monkey-do reproduction of Western technology and practices (rip-off other device manufacturers, rip-off other designers and artistes).
Hopefully a time will come when, as did Japan and Korea, they will acquire a design aesthetic and philosophy all of their own, and plumb their rich cultural and artistic history to blaze a trail that others will follow.
In Japan it seemed to come from the realisation that all things, even microchips, had their own soul, personality and existence (according to their Shinto beliefs) and in this way they brought imported technology "home" in synchronisation with their national psyche, enabling "native" creativity in technology.
What'll it be with China? I-Ching / Tao / Zen matrix computing? Can't wait to see what the results will bring to the exciting world of gadgeteering!!!

[Truth Hurts @ Nov 26th 2007 10:53PM]

You forgot to mention China is run by Communist butchers. ;p

[clevin @ Nov 26th 2007 9:17PM]

Total Copycat, even copy apple's behavior of ripping off artist in PR. how nice..

[Saad Rabia @ Nov 26th 2007 9:25PM]

http://www.meizume.com/showthread.php?t=4393

http://www.meizume.com/showthread.php?t=4392

[Mr Corsini @ Nov 26th 2007 9:35PM]

your all a bunch of ignorant F**kers, I'm white as casper the f**king ghost but I am well aware that the chinese are gonna take the F**k over very soon. None of you seem to have any idea about what is going on in china right now, I hope you ignorant pr**ks get ready for when the chinese take your job from right under ur F**king nose cos the do it 10 times better than you. The only similarity this phone has with the iphone is purely aesthetic. It use different components, different materials a different f**king OS, and no the didn't rip off win ce it is ligitimate WIN CE 6.0. They having f**ing engineers from microsft and a host of other companies working for them. And as for D**kheads like revivinggreen running their mouth about b**shit they have no idea about. THIS IS FAN ART YOU DUMB F**KER. And Truth Hurts peddling some crock of S**t propeganda, yes we all know the chinese fake S**t, what is your point? U racist F**k, the chinese invented loads of s**t that is original and the chinese microsoft offices file thousands of new patents each year.

[St. Stephen @ Nov 26th 2007 9:45PM]

you make me hot with your eloquent speech.. mmmm come to daddy!

[RikF @ Nov 27th 2007 1:22AM]

OK, mommy says you have to go home now - it's past your bed time and you're getting testy.

[jake @ Nov 26th 2007 10:05PM]

I think you hit the nail in the head with that one. China has been late to the game that Japan and Korea played before they got where they are today. China has held a long belief in tradition and not following "western" ways. After getting whipped by the Japanese in WWII (and in much of the period before that) for that philosophy, they began to reverse that thinking. Japan and Korea have copied others to climb where they are in the technology world today. Now they can innovate and make products without copying others. China, on the other hand, is new in developing their own products and so depend on reverse engineering to learn how to make products. By the time they get proficient enough to not copy, they can stand with Japan and Korea. However, this will likely take a long time as most of Chinese industry is exploited by foreign investors and companies; the Chinese government is fighting back, forcing foreign companies to relinquish their technological know-how to continue exploiting the Chinese labor force, helping built up domestic industry (you can see this in the auto industry, if you want to profit over the Chinese auto market you have to enter "a partnership" with a domestic auto manufacturer).

[chengdude @ Nov 26th 2007 10:16PM]

Nothing like a Meizu post on Engadget to bring out the best in people. Here's the (translated) source of the image in question...yeah, it's fan art, so can't blame the company:

http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pagecontent?lp=zh_en&trurl=http%3a%2f%2fmeizu.com%2fbbs%2fdispbbs.asp%3fboardID%3d22%26ID%3d583276%26page%3d10

Apparently CNMO.com took that idea and ran with it.

The point is -and one that Engadget has made before in earlier, more rational days- Meizu has played this whole thing like a T-Ball team in MLB. When your entire PR/teaser campaign consists of wink-wink-nudge-nudge posts on a BBS from purported president "J Wong", well, that's just so wrong it's hard to know where to start.

[Ray @ Nov 26th 2007 11:07PM]

Chris Ziegler's post = Racist overtones seeping out.

Who cares it is an Apple iphone ripoff. Meizu primary market is China. Last time I visited, not a lot of people can afford an iphone in China. Meizu sell their product much cheaper in China to compensate for the low income.

A lot of foreign companies have finally realized that certain segment of the Chinese population could not afford their products and have adjusted their pricing accordingly to avoid the domestic companies from eating their lunch.

China is a developing country who will be developing and designing their own gadgets in due time. When it does, I hope Chris can find it in his ignorant heart to apologize.

[RikF @ Nov 27th 2007 1:26AM]

But in the meantime we should applaud their ripping off of others designs?

Oh and by the way, for Chris's post to have been racist it would have had to mention a race, not a company. Please point out the section in the post where he says that the entire Chinese nation, or even the entire Chinese manufacturing section is ripping people off. Or the point in the post where he mentions the Chinese at all? Attacking one company for ripping off designs/images is not racist you berk. Would it be an attack on Americans if the company had been based in the US?