Copyright Images.....

[Stitch Up]

I've bought lots of stuff from both Aldi & Lidl and sold it on at a decent mark-up

[John G]

If you buy copyrighted merchandise legally, then try selling it on - the owner of the copyright can sue you for breaching the copyright. Its got nothing to do with making a profit - your buying the item, not the copyright.

Try selling promotional style items (more than one) with a Premiership Football Club name on - on ebay, and within a few days, maybe a week, and your item will be pulled due to copyright. I'm not saying don't buy the mugs and sell them on - all i'm saying is, regarding the law - its breaking the copyright.

[John G]

Ok - thought I better check out what I believed to be the truth on selling copyright merchandise and have found the following:

http://www.techeye.net/business/ebay-an ... urt-ruling

I cannot see anybody chasing for the rights owner on these mugs, once the weddings over they aren't going to be selling anymore

[jennywren]

Well the lower deck lawyers will be making money, does that mean when we buy of a wholesaler that we can't sell it on. this gets more and more confusing, second hand shops, charity shops, car booters, and many more that would take to long to mention, it's unnerving in a way, just glad that I don't trawl the internet reading and digesting everything because 99 percent of the time I like to stay within the law. Still John G you must be the most 100 percent person within the law and I take my hat off to you

[AdamB]

I think wholesalers are ok Jennywren as they are the 'legal' middle-men for distributing goods to retailers.

The whole confusion lies with buying goods from retailers who are end of line if you like and selling the item on again.

Personally, Law or no Law I believe it's called 'enterprise' and does this mean that Alan Sugar got where he is now illegally?

You put an item on sale for a price, if a customer is happy paying that price for it then great - no one's forcing them to buy it. There are 'plenty' of people on ebay selling stuff from shops at ridiculous prices which are being bought by overseas users. Will they do anything about it ............ probably not as the retailer is still selling that particular item for the price they wanted, and this is being sold on by the ebayer who makes a living from it and stops them from claiming benefits!

[AdamB]

JohnG - a question mate please, and this is not me trying to stir anything up - I am just curious.

You are a sign maker and a screen printer (amongst other things) by trade (I believe).

Have you (or would you) create a sign for me (this is a generic question). I am selling sports goods and motorcycle products, so on my signs I want all the trade-mark logos such as addidas, nike, harley davison etc .......................

..................... is this legal re-producing those images and then selling the finished product onto me for profit?

..................... if was legal for you to make the sign, would you check if I was a legit seller?

..................... and if it is legal, surely I would be able to make my own sign up with a disc from ebay with trade logos on? (would this be legal).

As I said, this is not me being argumentative in anyway, I am just curious about the answers that's all.

[John G]

I think, unintentionally, that I'm portraying a false identity - no I'm not squeeky clean and yes, I have made items that skirt around the edges of copyright legallity. In the past I've had a few items removed off ebay including football merchadise, I heart (love) "team name goes here" and even items with a simples critter

When I was an apprentice printer, (over 25 years ago) I saw - well lets say, athletic names and that guy who's the "BOSS" getting printed. They were printed by the 1000's, everyday but in the end the people who owned the company ended up behind bars - now that was breaching copyright

AdamB Its a funny situation - if it was for a shop front then yes, aslong as the artwork was supplied and I knew that he was selling legit stuff. If it was for a market trader then no - i'd refuse to do the sign. I'd also refuse to do anything with nike, adidas Hugo Boss etc as, in the end - they always catch up with you.

And yes I would buy the mugs and sell at a profit - business is business and on this one I'd take a chance.:biggrin:

[jennywren]

it was for a shop front then yes, as long as the artwork was supplied and I knew that he was selling legit stuff. If it was for a market trader then no

I was a market trader for 16 years and now a shop renter for 3 weeks, whilst I was in the indoor market we have trading standards, health and safety, tax man ect around all the time, you name it they came, we had more rules and regulation,s in fact where trading was concerned that had us by the gonads every which way which, we were council run and they had their set of silly rules that was difficult to follow at times, we had to have fire plans, all details had to kept at the market office, name address, even who you employed, and so much more, it would take war and peace to tell you all, now I'm in a shop, has anyone been to see my insurance, fire plan, staff members ect n the answer is NO, beening a shop owner has so much prestige and hardly any check are made on us. Its always been the same go to say a show because you don't have the name shop keeper but market trader on that tag they put around your neck, gives the impression we break the law, have little money and are far down the food chain, but generally we spend more than a shop keeper, pay on time and pay more attention to the rules and regulations than most people in trade, we are generally trade in all weather, in crap buildings, and are viewed as thieving, crap and lower than car booters and are viewed my most councils are cash cows, to provide a service to upgrade shop keepers. In reality we are generally hard working, work longer hours than shops and have not much debt ( who would give market traders credit ) we spend more time on the care of our customers as have the shops are far to busy being up their own arses to entrain the lower and poor class. pity you never done business with a market trader because if they like your work and are reasonable price you then find word of mouth is everything in a market and would have so much work and paid in cash and on time with a set of regulations set down by the council and with in the law

[John G]

Hi Jennywren, I wasn't putting market traders down, I know they are very hard workers and most are above board - but the stuff that I mention above was all sold and picked up by market traders. Paid for by cash - rolls of the stuff, and nothing went through the books. We have a quayside market in Newcastle and a walk along there might open a few eyes - its amazing how these people get away with it if the checks are so stringent.

As for checks on store/shop/unit holders etc - I've had two industrial units, for the first owners I had to show that I had insurance and they wanted to see my business plan - the owners of the second unit, which I'm in now, needed to see insurance, my business plan, the last 2 years books, how many staff, how many cars and rthe sort of work I was going to carry out.

So yes, checks are done here, it must be down to your landlord whether he checks you out or not.

[John G]

Just like to add:

it was for a shop front then yes, as long as the artwork was supplied and I knew that he was selling legit stuff. If it was for a market trader then no

I do make signs for market traders and they pay cash on collection of sign and invoice - they are good payers. What I meant was I wouldn't do a sign with sporting names/logos on for market traders, been there seen it and got the fake t'shirt