Lamest A Distant Soil copyright/trademark infringement ever
on July 24th, 2010So, I’m checking out ebay, because even I don’t have copies of some of my back issues. There are lots of great bargains there, until you factor in shipping. Then it’s no bargain at all.
This is a t-shirt made from a sketch I drew for Storm Vervain. It’s displayed on the August 4, 2008 post.
Take a closer look.
Those clever pirate tricksters in Hong Kong where this fine item is manufactured for sale failed to remove the inscription to Storm.
So, if you are just dying to get a t-shirt with a sketch by me on it, you can get one personalized to someone else!
After I stopped laughing, I wrote ebay a nice note and asked them to remove the item. No luck so far.
I’ll let you know what happens.
As near as I can tell, this manufacturer sells a lot of bootleg stuff.
Have you registered in eBay verified rights owner provram(VeRO)?
Once you do they act very quickly to remove infringing material.
wow that is… incredibly lame. And they have a store too.
Yeah, takedown! Grrr!
Scare me. I hope they go down, but it seems like the bad guys win quite often.
Something I’ve wondered about: how do you maintain copyright on work posted online? Is a disclaimer necessary?
I know in a practical sense that many people still myopically believe everything that’s posted is free for the taking, but is there a notification I should post to protect my work? I see the copyright symbol in your masthead. Is that sufficient? Big tricky issue, I know, but as I post more of my own work these days, it’s been on my mind, and I don’t recall seeing blog copyright concerns specifically addressed.
You don’t need to register a copyright to enjoy copyright protection. Under current copyright law, you create it, you own it. Automatically.
Since these dorks had the gall to put up my name and book title to sell the piece, they know perfectly well what they are doing.
And they have tens of thousands of other items which are clearly bootlegs. Metalhead, Ziljian, you name it, they are selling it.
This is very common for dealers from Hong Kong.
Just to clarify: I am sure you realize this, but regardless of your legal rights, this does not prevent anyone from stealing from you. It just means you have the right to take action after you’ve been robbed.
Post a copyright notice, register that trademark. Registration gives you greater legal protection and rights to more damages. But it doesn’t stop infringement. Doesn’t even slow it down.
Chinese pirates are quite sneaky. While working in licensing my biggest fear was whenever a client would send licensed art to a Chinese manufacturer. I know sooner or later there would be pirated product with said licensed art.
Now they can just snag it off the internet.
I scrolled down to the bottom and noticed the disclaimer of “Attention Intellectual Property Right Owner If you feel any of our product violate your Trademark, Design or Patent Rights, please contact us immediately and we will instantly remove any offending listing
The logo/picture is trademark of their respective companies. This product is not licensed, defined, sponsored, endorsed or manufactured by this Company.”
Now, I’ve seen people who think this is enough, but until now, I’ve seen it on things like fanworks, but this is the first time I’ve seen it on blatant works they’re clearly making money off of.
(Especially common on galleries of fanworks, that often state such things like ‘I don’t know where I got these, if one of them is yours, let me know!’)
They didn’t create anything themselves either, just copy pasted… what the hell makes them think they have any right at all to make money off it? I mean, at least when people attempt to sell fanfiction or whatever, they at least created something themselves. :/
That aside, do you think if someone bothered to inform all the original sellers about them, they’d really take it down and settle with an empty store?
(though in hindsight, I suppose they’d just steal more stuff..)