Copyright and how do they get away with it?

[Paul]

Paul,
I wrote how would "I" know.
How are you protecting your original ideas?
When you sold your templates to this person did yu make it plain as to what they could be used for?
If your T&C's dont state that yout templates are not for resale then your T&C's need tightening up to protect your interests.
Have you written to these people via snail mail to complain?

so is that mean I can a book and photocopy it ion million copys and sell as my?
copyrights stay with the owner for ever! it does not mater I state that in my licence or not. if you know this picture is not yours so you can not claim as your property and start asking for money for it!
this bloke did.

this is whats on his web site under my templates collection:

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Welcome to our brand new Wedding mug section! As im sure you will agree, our design team really have done us proud! 

and this is email I recieved from him after I asked if psd templates (my own) r included:

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Hi There,
Yes all included, the photoshop ones took me weeks to do! the photoshop templates belong to me and the others, i got from the public domain so you dont need any licence. everything you need is included to get your mug business of the ground

my @!*%# ! arsenal badge etc as public domain...
I dont think there is excuse...

[jennywren]

I've brought some of Pauls templates and the were fairly priced but I would still not give them to anybody because if they want them they can go and buy them of him, plus you can claim some of it back on your tax returns. We can go round in circles about copyright but it does go on all time and if you've brought the license you can go to them and they deal with it, on your own doorsteps thats just bloody cheeky but I expect it eats at you but there will always be somebody that will do it.

[castlegategiftcreations]

These guys have set up various websites - we bought a website off them a couple of years back - at the time they were called "Mugs by McCarthy" and claimed that they were really big in the Merseyside area and they had dealt with programmes such as Loose Women and Hollyoaks. We were new to sublimation and didn't really have a clue about websites etc so when we spotted this guy selling his website we thought "why not".

The guy was selling up due to him not having enough time to run it anymore and also due to his wife being ill or something. We were told that he would change all information over to our company name and it would be up and running very quickly.

Yeah right - we only paid £60 for it but we are still waiting for him to change everything into our name!!! I can't even remember how to log into the site now it has been so long.

Not long after we bought it he sent us some disks with all images on it - he also said that he got from a public domain so didn't need a licence - meaning we could use all filmstar, celebrities, football badges, cars etc without having to worry about copyright!!!

Needless to say we have never used these images and now have a proper website almost finished.

For anyone thinking of using these guys - one word of warning - "DON'T".

Paul with regards to your templates - we bought from you a disk with hundreds of them on - a couple of quick questions for you -

1 - do we have permission to put them on our website (not to sell them on but to let people know they can have a background image on there mug). That's if I could figure out how to get them on there so they are noticed.

2 - you did say some time ago that you were hoping to put together a catalogue with all images - have you ever managed to do this. I have printed out about 100 of them but we have so many and it is very time consuming.

[Paul]

Julie anne! I new iremeber your name it was you asking me about catalogue. I had them done but dont know where they r. I will do this again for you.
Reards to your question.
Yes you can publish them on your web site. Thats why you brought them for. you can show them off. No problem. Only resselin is not allowed.

Thank you
Paul

[GoldRapt]

.
Yes you can publish them on your web site. Thats why you brought them for. you can show them off. No problem. Only resselin is not allowed.

Thank you
Paul

So maybe you need to sell your stuff off with a re-seller licence Paul.

[JSR]

Yes you can publish them on your web site. Thats why you brought them for. you can show them off. No problem. Only resselin is not allowed.

Thank you
Paul

Hi Paul

I've just been browsing your site (I'm interested in some Christmas-themed templates) and I noticed some of your templates use the Superman-S logo (the diamond shield with the S) in the corner - re: http://www.frames4photoshop.info/duze/5.jpg (5th row up from the bottom). Isn't that logo a trademark of DC Comics or Warner?

Where do we stand with using that template? Are we likely to have DC/WB legal bods banging down our doors if we sold mugs with that logo on?

If you have license to use/sell that logo on a template and someone else then starts selling your templates without that license, then you could get DC/WB to come down on them like a ton of bricks - and they would. History is replete with examples of people trying to use that logo, and variants of it, only to be sued to the wall.

Thanks for any info.

J

[Paul]

Hi jsr. i dont know about that one. I dont have licence for it. But i have resale licence from my artist. He own all licences needed.

Jsr. You say if i redraw diamond and put "p" inside as "paul" would that be braking copyright? On this template is not superman picture. Only drawed little boy dressed as a super hero. I am sure this is legal.

Regards to christmas ones just let me know what ones you like.

[JSR]

Hi jsr. i dont know about that one. I dont have licence for it. But i have resale licence from my artist. He own all licences needed.

Jsr. You say if i redraw diamond and put "p" inside as "paul" would that be braking copyright? On this template is not superman picture. Only drawed little boy dressed as a super hero. I am sure this is legal.

Regards to christmas ones just let me know what ones you like.

Hi Paul

I just noticed the logo with the S in it at the top-left - which is the Superman S-logo. I'm not sure of the legalities of a figure flying through the logo like in the bottom right. I'm no legal person, so I don't know how far the logo needs to be modified until it's "legal" - such as putting 'P' in the middle of it (my gut instinct is that they wouldn't like it, but I don't know). I know they protect the word "Superman" in the style of the 3D text and if you were to use the same style for "Paul's Frames", they would complain about that.

A trademark is different to copyright, Copyright is the word, trademark is an identifying mark (a style or design that's identifiable to the brand). Google "Superman copyright" or "Superman trademark" and you'll find plenty about the legal minefield of who owns what and who can do what with what etc. I wouldn't want to risk it, myself, because there's no black & white answer.

However, if your artist does have permission to let us use the shield logo on that template, then I'm sure it would be a very popular mug.

Re: Christmas ones. I'm pondering trying out some of your frames on mugs via my website. For now, I don't want to be buying the whole lot because I'd never get them all on the website . But a couple of Christmas ones would be worth a go to see how it works - Santa, a starring night, candles, that kind of thing. The only Christmas ones I've found on your website are in the £34.99 set and I don't think I'm ready for that kind of outlay in these early stages.

Do you do a "Christmas pack" of half-a-dozen or so designs for a few quid?

Thanks
J

[Paul]

Well... Is hard one... Coz i dont realy know just in case i will delate this logo layer... Iam not a thief so don want any troubles....


And i can do little package with santa for you i think it will be about 15 maybe 20 designes...

[JSR]

Well... Is hard one... Coz i dont realy know just in case i will delate this logo layer... Iam not a thief so don want any troubles....

I didn't mean to cause any trouble. I just noticed it and thought "that looks good", but then my conscience kicked in and said "is that legal?" I'm sure we'd all be richer people if we didn't have a conscience.

And i can do little package with santa for you i think it will be about 15 maybe 20 designes...

Sounds great to me.