The use of the word fake implies a deception or the intent to deceive. Clealry as there was a contract between Falerio & Mario to produce Masi's in the USA there was no deception intended. I mean there are clear differences between the Californian and Italian built Masi's - right ? Even if they were identical in all aspects, the link between the original Italian company and Mario was legal one.
Now had Mario fled to the U.S. and without the Italian company's approval, begun producing Masi's and tried to pass them off as being by Falerio, then they would be considered fakes.
Perhaps the only "deception" could be that the non-Italian bikes were no more than just a cynical attempt to cash in, on the Italian bike image portrayed in Breaking Away...............
What I'd be interested to know, is why Falerio chose to set up production in the U.S. ? Was it just a straightforward case of the need to avoid U.S. importation duty on foreign goods to maximise profit / minimise costs or was there more to it than that. In the Post WWII era, few British manufacturers broke into the export market to mainland Europe due to, for example, the high level of duty imposed by the French government but there did not appear to be the same problems exporting to the U.S. and Canada. Clearly though this was well before the American bike boom era.
Bob Reid
Stonehaven
Scotland