1836: I Became a Literary Giant in Great Britain

Chapter 310 Doesn't Michelle make money?

Michelle's Alice in Wonderland toys and blind boxes are incredibly popular in London.

This naturally attracted the envy of many businessmen, especially those who pirated goods.

In fact, piracy has long been a problem that has troubled London's writers.

Don't assume that everything is fine just because the UK has copyright laws protecting you.

As long as there's money to be made, you have absolutely no idea how flexible or how low the bottom line these pirates can be...

Take Michelle's good friend Dickens as an example.

His biography of Pickwick became a bestseller in Britain, but he subsequently encountered a number of disgusting incidents last year.

Because the Pickwick Papers were serialized monthly, each issue cost one shilling. While this price was acceptable to London's middle class, it was far too expensive for an ordinary worker who toiled every day to earn a living.

Edward Lloyd, a London-based pirate, seized this opportunity.

To be honest, this Mr. Edward was quite clever. He didn't simply copy the Pickwick Papers verbatim; instead, he used a different method: rewriting. He had his writers imitate Dickens' style... While the characters' personalities and the overall story structure were borrowed from the original, the specific sentences were his own.

This makes it difficult to legally determine that this is an infringement.

Soon, a book called "A Penny Pickwick" appeared on the market. As the name suggests, it was priced at only one penny, a full twelve percent cheaper than Dickens' original... so it sold very well.

"Can't afford an authentic copy of Dickens's Pickwick biographies?"

"It's okay, you can get a decent view for a penny."

Dickens was so disgusted that he took the pirate to court last year.

Ironically, the lawsuit failed to stop the counterfeiter. One major reason given by the court was that the forgery was so poorly made that the court did not believe consumers would confuse it with the genuine Dickens.

In the original timeline, after Mr. Edward won, he remained in Yin-Yang Dickens.

In the preface to a later edition of the Penny Pickwick Collection, the gentleman defended himself.

His logic was roughly this: I'm simply using a popular character and formula, and my work is quite inexpensive; I'm making entertainment accessible to a wider, poorer readership.

Simply put, this gentleman felt that what he was doing was not piracy, but a noble cause, enabling the poor to have access to books.

Of course, another major reason why Dickens encountered piracy problems was that the plots of his stories were too loose, making them too easy for pirates to imitate.

You see, the piracy issue Michelle herself experienced wasn't that serious.

The dozens of fake Mr. Michels who had previously wreaked havoc in London have all disappeared; not a single one of them was any real fighter.

Michel himself speculated that the pirates found it extremely difficult to imitate his work... after all, his works are quite difficult to copy.

However, blind boxes and models related to "Alice in Wonderland" face a much more difficult situation. Current laws offer little protection for such IP developments, creating an opportunity for many pirates in London.

Mr. Gavin Norris was a pirate in London.

He was a veteran in London's piracy scene.

They can come up with all sorts of piracy methods with ease.

Whether it's imitating or rewriting a work, using the title to capitalize on the original's fame, or even directly calling it a sequel...

Those knock-off Mr. Michels that appeared in London in the past were his creations.

Although London readers will soon realize they've been fooled, they still made a considerable profit.

Unfortunately, Mr. Michel's plot was too tight and exciting... which made Mr. Gavin's piracy business much more difficult.

After all, if those cheap novel writers had this level of skill, they wouldn't be doing this kind of work.

He had witnessed the booming sales of toys and blind boxes based on Michelle's "Alice in Wonderland".

Especially those wealthy and generous gentlemen, when they buy blind boxes, they practically treat pounds as nothing.

Mr. Gavin witnessed a gentleman in the coffee shop opening two or three hundred blind boxes...

...The number of playing cards drawn was enough to form a football match.

He did a rough estimate and knew how astonishing the profits were.

In addition, Mr. Gavin is more knowledgeable about the law than his peers.

The novel itself is protected by copyright law, but the character Alice is not.

Take the Mr. White Rabbit blind box, for example. Although you can't directly replicate an exact copy, you can completely redesign a different image of Mr. White Rabbit...

"This is a completely different rabbit..."

7

Mr. Gavin even came up with excuses for his defense.

In other words, he could easily leverage the popularity of Lord Michel's blind boxes and models to launch his own toys and blind boxes.

This idea is just too tempting!

Let alone earning the same as Lord Michel. Even earning just one-tenth of Lord Michel's is an astronomical figure.

Mr. Gavin acted immediately.

After assessing the legal risks involved, he quickly spent a large sum of money to purchase a batch of authentic Lord Michel's Alice in Wonderland toys and blind boxes.

Although he didn't disassemble any rare or hidden models. I've heard that these rare and hidden models are very difficult to counterfeit, not to mention they come with genuine certificates...

But being able to replicate the regular version is more than enough.

He's going to start copying other brands! Mr. Gavin has even envisioned himself becoming rich overnight...

However, to his utter surprise, problems soon arose.

Those are Lord Michel's toys and blind boxes; they're so hard to counterfeit!

Yes, don't underestimate these toys and blind boxes; they are actually made with extremely high precision.

Ordinary machines simply can't produce this. If you were to make it entirely by hand, you obviously wouldn't make much money, and might even lose money.

There's no turning back once you start. I'm not only able to fleece Lord Michel this time, but I can keep doing so in the future...

Mr. Gavin and his partners used their savings, even going into debt, and gritted their teeth to bring in a batch of brand-new machines.

Mr. Gavin patted his chest confidently on the spot.

"Don't worry, sir. As long as we can successfully replicate Lord Michel's toys and blind boxes, we'll essentially have a machine that produces pounds sterling indefinitely..."

Yes, in his view, as long as he can successfully replicate and pirate the product, it is obvious that all the money can be recovered.

But soon, something puzzling, even unbelievable, happened.

In Mr. Gavin's underground workshop, Mr. Gavin was humming a little tune.

Indeed, the problem of production precision was solved after the introduction of advanced machines and skilled workers.

It's already about 80% as good as Lord Michel's official toys and blind boxes...

Next, once the costs are calculated and the selling price is determined, you can begin your grand plan to make a fortune.

At that moment, Mr. Gavin's secretary walked in.

He held a report in his hand, his face looking extremely grim.

"Sir, the cost report is ready."

Mr. Gavin still looked relaxed.

After all, in his view, there was no reason for him to have a higher cost than Lord Michel... Ever since he was able to replicate it, he felt that victory was in his grasp.

However, when he received the cost report, this seasoned pirate almost jumped up! He looked like he'd seen a ghost.

"How is this possible!"

"Did we make a mistake? Let's go back and calculate it again."

"Sir, we've already calculated it three times. This is the correct number."

The secretary shook her head with a wry smile.

Indeed, the figures in this cost report were truly astonishing. So much so that even a seasoned veteran like Mr. Gavin almost thought his eyes were playing tricks on him.

After confirming the report's authenticity, Mr. Gavin seemed to have lost all his strength.

Indeed, the problem before him was absolutely terrifying.

It all comes down to the cost issue...

Even with the machines available, which can replicate Lord Michel's work to a great extent, the costs are vastly different.

Lord Michel's version was priced at only one shilling, while their production cost alone was as high as three shillings.

What else is there to sell?

As a counterfeit product, it's priced three times higher than the genuine article... How could anyone possibly be willing to buy it?

Disheartened, Mr. Gavin was also utterly perplexed.

Logically speaking, the technologies they use shouldn't be too different.

...But why is there such a big difference in costs?

Is Lord Michel doing charity? Losing two shillings on each blind box sold?

Is it really as this lord said, that he sells things not to make money, but simply to make friends?

God the hell, let's make friends.

It can be said that all of Mr. Gavin's knowledge was overturned by this report.

Of course, after calming down, although he was still confused, he understood even more clearly that Lord Michel could not possibly be doing charity work.

Rather than the speculation that they lose money on every unit sold, a more likely hypothesis is that Lord Michel possessed some more advanced production technology... which is why the costs of the two are not even in the same league.

Given this gentleman's level of genius, this is not impossible.

Thinking about this, Mr. Gavin felt somewhat desperate.

How could Mr. Michel be so mean?!

He was completely unaware that he was the one who had the crooked idea first.

However, Mr. Gavin immediately came up with another good idea.

Although I know that knock-off Alice in Wonderland toys and blind boxes are not feasible... there are always some fools in London who don't know that...

If I run fast enough, the lightning won't strike me... Maybe I can not only pay off my debts, but also recover some of my savings.

"Quickly, get me in touch with Mr. Finn Flint. Wasn't he quite interested in our knock-off Alice in Wonderland technology and machinery before?"

'

"Quickly tell him that a perfect opportunity has arrived!"

"Quickly! As fast as you can!"

In fact, it wasn't just the London pirates who were confused; even the workers at the super factory were somewhat puzzled.

After training, Old Jack has become a full-time employee of the super factory and enjoys the corresponding benefits.

Not only can you work in such a bright and clean factory, but you can also take a hot shower before leaving get off work in the evening.

Go home comfortably and refreshed.

It could be said that because of this job, he began to gain considerable influence among his neighbors.

Although Old Jack was quite satisfied with his job, he had recently become somewhat perplexed because this job was so different...

To be honest, Old Jack had worked in quite a few factories in London before and had some factory work experience.

But in his view, the processes at Lord Michel’s super factory were completely different from those of any other factory work before.

In fact, Old Jack's job was very simple.

That is to check every Alice in Wonderland figurine or blind box that leaves the factory for any related defects.

defect..

To be honest, this is not really anything new.

After all, Britain is now one of the most industrialized countries in the world. When factories produce goods, they certainly can't completely ignore quality.

For example, a textile factory would inspect the fabric for damage, stains, or weaving defects. A ceramics factory, on the other hand, would pick out products that are cracked, deformed, or have problems with the glaze.

As for the printing factory, that's even easier to arrange.

Typically, checks will be conducted on aspects such as ink color, overprinting, font, and paper quality.

In Lord Michel's mega-factory, quality control has also been given a new twist.

The first thing is the definition of what constitutes a qualified product.

Take Alice's model as an example.

In the past, workers would usually just think that the painting wasn't very good, but they couldn't pinpoint exactly what was wrong with it.

However, during this quality inspection...

The factory has established special standards for finished product inspection, and even placed standard samples directly next to the quality inspection table.

To find out if it meets the standards, simply compare it with the standard product.

This may sound simple, but it actually represents a major breakthrough in mindset.

Because in a megafactory, quality has transformed from a subjective feeling into a set of quantifiable and replicable standards...

There was even a form next to Old Jack's quality control station.

The records show the total quantity produced today, the quantity that passed inspection, and the quantity that was reworked or scrapped.

At first, old Jack didn't understand why Lord Michel insisted on having such a table.

But just a few days ago, he understood Lord Michel's deeper meaning.

The second workshop encountered production problems.

The table shows that the cracking rate in the second workshop was twice that of the first workshop. A final inspection revealed that the problem stemmed from an issue with the drying environment in the second workshop... After adjustments were made, the problem was resolved.

This seemingly insignificant form gave Old Jack a completely new perspective. In the past, he relied on the skills and experience of master craftsmen, but now a single form could quickly identify problems in production.

As expected of Lord Michel!

But what surprised old Jack even more was something else.

This completely overturned his understanding of factory production...

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