Pakuri: The Internet hobby of spotting copycats

Pakuri is the Japanese slang word for a kind of artistic thievery -- from the verb pakuru (パクる) meaning 'to rip off, steal.' Before the era of "Japan Cool," Westerners complained bitterly that Japanese companies constantly ripped off Western products and culture. Now the tables have turned, as Japan, a center for global creative culture, has its product ideas and package designs pilfered by other countries.

But such unauthorized copying can't go unnoticed in our Internet age. In its unofficial role as "defender of social good," Japanese BBS 2-ch works to reveal plagiarism among foreign products. And also, Japanese musicians' less-than-honest borrowings from Western musicians.

In its current context, the pakuri is used to denote when an artist or company uses elements from a contemporary in a similar field without permission or acknowledgement of the borrowing. Pakuri is not sampling, pastiche or influence: It's very simply ripping someone off -- and hoping you don't get caught.

For an intro into the world of pakuri-spotting, Japanese blog Alfalfa Mosaic offers a good visual list that lines up the most famous cases of suspected thievery. Most of the items are Korean snacks that seem to rip off Japanese packaging design. (The Pocky vs. Pepero one is particularly damning.)

Korea, however, is not the only target. In the same list, the blog posters have fun with shot-by-shot dissections of music videos from singer Kumi Koda that appear to take many creative elements from works by American singers Britney Spears, Christina Aguliera and Jennifer Lopez. Here is a sample: Koda's "You" vs. J-Lo's "All I Have."

With so much fun in pointing out others' ethical breaches, the internet is now full of sites and videos dedicated to unauthorized borrowings. Here's one about alleged Korean pakuri of Japanese character design. And we also can't ignore the incredible lists of "separated at birth?" -- like faux pakuri.

Feel free to start making your own lists of suspected plagiarism. Just don't use anyone else's discoveries without properly crediting them lest you be accused of pakuri!