Counterfeit goods and used equipment have been the topic of two cover stories this summer. InformationWeek’s July 7 cover story titled Used Gear: Notes from the Underground provides an in-depth look at enterprise customer behaviors and concludes that purchasing used IT gear from unauthorized brokers is risky. This week’s CRN cover story titled Fakes: Can You Tell the Difference looks at the issue from the channel perspective. It cites the prevalence of IT counterfeit products globally (estimated at $100B annually), the origin of the manufacture for the suspect goods (often China), and how the counterfeit goods get mixed into the channel (typically through multiple intermediaries). This is not just a Cisco problem, but a widespread problem in the IT industry. Full article http://blogs.cisco.com/news/2007/08/protecting_against_gray_market.html