Just noticed that some Chinese pirate ( where have I heard that before) is now doing a copy of the 200mm British Machine gunner in Afghanistan.
I give up with these guys, dont know what can be done to stop them. Just dont buy any crap from china.

[B]in.gelivable[/B]
Thats the guy!
Don

You know? As many complaints as e(vil)Bay gets, why don't they do more about these types of things? It's hard to believe that even today, they only care about the money and claim no responsibility as to what is being sold on THEIR website!

Jim Patrick

I think that you're right Don that it's hard to see how this can be policed. The only way is to stop the money at source, in other words it's usually pretty obvious when a faker is at work so a bit of vigilance and responsibility on the buyers part wpould help.
Cheers
Derek

A good place to start is to not spread their links to their wares, profiles on ebay, etc.

Google, MSN , Yahoo and search engines crawl planetFigure and these URLS and they get indexed as regular searches and gives these pirates more publicity. Which is the last thing we want to do.

Sorry Gordy, I never thought that I would be helping them just by posting a name on here. Certainly wont happen again.

Don

Not to worry Don Pasting the name from ebay grabs the link to it as well. Outing the name is okay just make sure the link come with it.

Cheers,
gordy

The responsibility for ending this lies with the manufacturers-El Greco managed to stop two of their pieces being ripped off-other producers just don't seem bothered!?

Keith

I quite agree, Keith. That's why my response to posts reporting piracy is, "Did you contact the manufacturer and let him know?"

We can all pledge not to buy copies, when we can identify them, and we can discuss what eBay and other auctions/show promoters should do, but ultimately, the copyright holder is the one who has the strongest standing to go after the pirate. I urge everyone, in addition to alerting fellow forum members, please to contact the manufacturers and let them know what you've found.

Prost!
Brad

Ditto!

Yes gentlemen I sent an email to Maurice Corry before I mentioned it on Planet. Like yourselves I feel its important the manufacturer knows as he/she has to be the person to deal with it.
Once thats done the buyers have to be warned as e-bay dont seem to worry as long as they make their money from whoever sells things

Illegal copies of Wee Friends

Hi Guys

I would just like to thank Carl Barton for bringing this thief to my attention. I have emailed both the ebay seller and ebay about the breach of copyright and theft of my property. I am still waiting on a reply.

However I do not know what else I or any other company can do about this. Apart from keeping an eye on his site and reporting every breach.

To try and combat this we kept the price of this figure and our other figures down, to try and make the theft of them by copying less likely. Why buy an inferior copy when you can get an original for not much more

Looking at the photo he posted of the figure it is a very poor casting.

Once again many thanks Carl.

Cheers

Ian Hanratty
www.friendshipmodels.org.uk

Re: Illegal copies of Wee Friends

Ian,

You need to join Ebay's VeRo programme. What you have to do is find the item in question, click on Report this item and follow the steps from there. As copyright owner, you will be required to provide proof (e-mail images are enough) and Ebay take action regarding that particular item. As such they do not block the seller. But we managed to stop the infamous Argentinian from recasting 2 of our kits. It takes a bit of effort the first few times, but hopefully then this will reduce the item in question from being recast.

Cheers
Celine

Re: Illegal copies of Wee Friends

Great info Celine!

Celine, if you have a few precious moments to detail the process in a separate post I can make it a sticky on the forum for all to follow. It can serve as a guide for other manufacturers, now and in the future

(I would but i'm not a manufacturer nor ebay buyer so I'm not familliar with all the terminology)

Cheers,
gordy

Ian. didnt know it was yours mate, Got an email back from Maurice telling me he had sold the figure but didnt name who to or I would have let you know. Maurice said he was going to cause some trouble for them, hope he does.
How are you keeping and will we see you at Euro. Will have a look at him if you are there.
Love the stuff big Davie did for you mate.

Don

Re: Illegal copies of Wee Friends

Dear Ian and all,

Do you realise how offensive your remark appears to other Chinese modellers and makers frequenting this site? I understand you frustration on this matter but there is no cause to use such a broad and sweeping statement.


Rgds Victor

Re: Illegal copies of Wee Friends

Point well taken Victor, thank you for bringing that to everyone's attention.

Cheers,
gordy

Re: Illegal copies of Wee Friends

Hello Victor.

I am very sorry if I have caused any offence to Chinese modellers and have altered my post. I wrote the post just after seeing the listing and should have waited a bit.

Unfortunately this thief seems to think it is okay to steal other peoples hard work for a small financial gain.


Celine, i did follow ebays rules and sent a message to both them and the seller and the item has been removed.

I have also noticed that the MC copies have also been removed only to be replaced by Dougs originals and Legend. There are other figures one there but I do not know whos they are.

Celine, i would certainly agree that a sticky on how to report this through Ebays Vero program would be a great help.

cheers

ian

Dear Ian,

Well said. Let's move on.

Rgds Victor