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Serious Collector
 
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 1/19/2010 5:29:19 PM
Posts: 454,
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| Hi, opinion urgently needed. Here's the situation: I bought a sketchbook (I'll not say the name of the artist) in a book shop in Spain. It's a 64 pages hard cover sketchbook printed with high quality paper. I am a fan of the artist and often I look for sketchbooks on ebay and I never saw something similar. It's like the Roll Royce of the sketchbooks. So I decided to list it on ebay with a VERY high BIN price; 16 hours after the auction started this is the result: 141 views, 15 watchers, 2 offers (50% of the asked price) and a message from a member saying I am violating copyright laws, that I have to remove my listing before Adam Hughes and Allison Sohn get me banned from ebay. Now, I know nothing about copyright laws, there is inside the front cover any kind of legal information: ISBN code, name of the editor and an email. I will ask to them about this, but also I am interested in your opinion. Lately ebay is giving my any kind of problems.
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Forum Sensation
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Last Login: Yesterday @ 2:01:31 PM
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| I find it hard to believe that you would be violating any form of copyright by selling property that is yours. That would be like saying that the bookstore that sold it to you violated copyright law by selling it to you. Unless this item is stolen property, and you have possession of it through nefarious means (be with your knowledge or not) I cannot see how any law is broken. I believe they are just "messing" with you. It's your property you may do with it what you wish.
"Psychos do not explode when sunlight hits them...I don't give a fu-- how crazy they are."
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Elite Collector
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Last Login: Today @ 12:00:18 PM
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Did this complainer tell you how you are violating copyright laws? If you are violating copyright laws by selling this then anyone who is selling any copyrighted, trademarked or patented good is infringing and they may as well fold eBay since there are very few legal commercial retailers on eBay.
Unless you receive a notice from the artist or the publisher of the sketchbook I would not worry about it. I have seen LOTS of sketchbooks up for sale.
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Master Collector
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 1/10/2010 4:44:35 PM
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All material in the book is copyrighted, under international agreements concerning intellectual properties but you are not violating those agreements as you are not passing this off as your own. Unless the material you are selling was stolen, then you are within your rights to sell it.
Where does he get those wonderful toys!
I have yet begun to surrender.
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Enthusiast
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 6/5/2009 6:49:50 PM
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They are pushing for stricter copyright laws though.
But, as stated, I can't think of any way this is illegal except for the reasons posted. It is very possible, that the person who made that 50% offer was asking saying that with a different account. It was maybe a scare tactic to get you to panic and sell it for much less than you want to.
Something like what you have is a tough thing to sell. The rare items normally get higher demand, but in cases when something is extremely rare, it is virtually unknown, therefore demand is actually decreased. This means doing a true auction format is risky (it may not get enough serious bidders to push the price high).
If you are talking about something you don't want and you are going to sell it for $500, then get rid of it. If it is something you really want, then consider how much it is worth to you. If you are just going to sell it to keep on buying expensive coffees or crap like that, then just give up the coffee for a while and consider that you already sold the sketchbook.
Now, I wonder how much my sketchbook would sell for.... I think I spent $35 for the book itself, then there are about 180 sketches in it (I think that is the page count)... Maybe $100 - $200? Now, if I were to sell the sketches one at a time, I should be able to get $5 - $10 each..., so that shoots the total up to $900 - $1800.... 
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Serious Collector
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 1/19/2010 5:29:19 PM
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| Well, apparently this is an UNAUTORIZED sketchbook, published without the permission of the artist, I looked at the artist message board and a member signaled my auction as not legit and invited other members to report my item to ebay. I canceled the auction but I am still interested on selling it. Do you think that I can get my account cancelled by ebay if some member report my item as "bootleg material"?
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Forum Sensation
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Last Login: Yesterday @ 2:01:31 PM
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marmat (5/27/2009)
Well, apparently this is an UNAUTORIZED sketchbook, published without the permission of the artist, I looked at the artist message board and a member signaled my auction as not legit and invited other members to report my item to ebay. I canceled the auction but I am still interested on selling it. Do you think that I can get my account cancelled by ebay if some member report my item as "bootleg material"?I highly doubt you would get your account cancelled with ebay since you ended the auction yourself. That shows good faith in regards to ebay's policy.
"Psychos do not explode when sunlight hits them...I don't give a fu-- how crazy they are."
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Master Collector
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Last Login: Today @ 9:20:38 AM
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marmat (5/27/2009)
Well, apparently this is an UNAUTORIZED sketchbook, published without the permission of the artist, I looked at the artist message board and a member signaled my auction as not legit and invited other members to report my item to ebay. I canceled the auction but I am still interested on selling it. Do you think that I can get my account cancelled by ebay if some member report my item as "bootleg material"?
"Bootlegs" - yep, ebay has always had a policy against those, pretty much the same category as drugs and other illegal items.
And postage stamps from Cuba after JFK banned them. (Serious, you can't find them on ebay in the US)
A high BIN would get attention. (A small "print run" could be big $$)
A new account listing bootlegs would be banned. Someone who's been there awhile buying and selling music or comics is bound to have some questionable material. That's ok, as long as they don't get rude about pulling a listing.
That "war" dates back to somewhere in the 1970s. Record albums were mostly bootlegged by hippies and the cops were more than happy to use copyright law as a pretense for a raid. (And when no bootlegging was found, they could arrest them on drug charges.) -- In the 1980s lots of used record stores were raided and old and new bootlegs were seized and destroyed (lots of 'illegal' recordings of live concerts)...
There's some fun collectibles that can't be bought or sold.
Meanwhile, there are some big sellers with copies of autographed photos and homemade DVDs of TV shows and movies. It all seems rather messed up to me.
Does the artist have a website?
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Enthusiast
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 6/5/2009 6:49:50 PM
Posts: 94,
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That is copyright infringement because the book, actually the contents of the book, is technically stolen.
Kind of like someone releasing an unofficial Metallica CD (like their own "Best of")
Now, you are saying that this sketchbook is published, meaning that the sketches are not original? I think the entire value comes from the fact that it is unauthorized.
The reason that this is illegal, is because nobody can collect money or royalties from the initial sale of this book.
You could try and get the permission of the artist, but odds are that he doesn't own the rights to his works anymore, so that may be a dead end.
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