Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Enjoy Your Moment, Enjoy Your Item. And don't dupe on eBay

The Internet.

Anything goes. People download "free" movies, TV shows, porn, and PDF/ePub copies of books.

People hoist things to YouTube and "monetize" them, even if it's somebody else's copyrighted material.

Let's have a bit of civility.

When Julie signs a picture, she's not entering into a business partnership. As in, "now you can scan this and sell copies."

She could sell "copies" on eBay and donate all the money to charity. So why are YOU copying and keeping all the money?

In a word DON'T.

Because it's RUDE. And you didn't tell her, "guess what, Julie, I'm gonna copy this photo because, er, uh, I want to make back the admission price for getting into Comic Con. And I'd like to make back the money I paid to meet you..."

Let's be a little more respectful and a lot less ridiculous.

PS, the items DO get removed from eBay as they are against eBay policy on counterfeit material and material being sold without licensing or permission.

That includes THIS:

Going back many years, people have routinely asked Julie to pose for a photo. Free. Even if it meant holding up the line. The reason? A souvenir. The reason shouldn't be to go into the dupe photo business. You didn't get a signed model release, after all. This was a friendly moment, not a business transaction.

So again, and this is coming not from Julie but from those who deal with the business end of things, please enjoy your moment. Enjoy the generosity of being able to take a photo at no charge. Enjoy your photo. If you need to sell it at some point, sell the original. Duping photos is just not nice or ethical. Thank you for your understanding.

1 Comments:

Blogger The Silver Fox said...

There are so many counterfeit items on eBay, I don't envy their trying to take them all down from the site. I'm a comic book and comic strip fan, among other things, and it really ticks me off when I see someone trying to make money from a bogus item. I've even seen Peanuts items supposedly signed by "Charles Schultz," when true fans would know that it's "Charles Schulz!"

Anyway, I'm glad you wrote this post. Hopefully it will help. And if I'm ever lucky enough to meet you, I'll ask you to personalize anything you sign for me. That way you'll know that I do not intend to sell it.

September 19, 2017 at 10:28 AM  

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