Re: [BKARTS] Copyright- new twist on topic

[Julie Sullivan <julie3@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I've scanned most of the posts about this topic, but have not read  
> each word for word, so if this repeats something already brought  
> up, I apologize.

My husband is an illustrator and is currently the victim of copyright  
infringement. It's pretty small potatoes, but frustrating and  
annoying none-the-less. And no less illegal than big fraud.

He sells digital prints on etsy.com. A purchaser in Australia  
recently commented that she had also seen one of his images on a t- 
shirt on ebay-australia. (We are not selling t-shirts, nor have we  
sold that particular image to anyone.) He found the Thailand-based  
seller of the shirts and notified him of the copyright infringement.  
The seller took the attitude of "prove it to me that you are the  
image owner." Which we can, of course. It just may not matter to him  
because he knows we have little recourse from our end.

All of the images he sells online from his web site, etsy.com and  
cafepress.com have digital watermarks. As the artist, my husband can  
see where the watermark has been "photoshopped" out; to the casual  
observer it would not be noticeable.

Ebay has been notified but to date there is no response from them,  
which is disappointing and makes one wonder how many other inventors,  
artists, etc. may have their hard work scooped up and sold on ebay by  
unscrupulous vendors. We think that there is a Thailand-based  
wholesaler that has obtained the image illegally, is putting the  
image on t-shirts and selling to retailers that in turn sell to the  
public. We have a suspicion of how the image was obtained illegally,  
but no proof.

I don't hold much hope that this infringement can be stopped,  
especially if we can get no help from ebay. If anyone out there has  
jumped through similar hoops, or, has suggestions for how to get  
these Thailand-based folks to cease, we would appreciate information.


Julie Sullivan

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